As the one-year anniversary of this blog approaches, I’m launching a Facebook page and proposing the following:
Why my 457 Facebook Friends should pay attention to copyright review.
I counted, and it turns out that at least 53% of you are direct or indirect beneficiaries of the copyright system in the United States. Among you are several copyright holders; several professionals whose jobs would not exist without copyrights; the children of professionals who worked in copyright-supported industries; and a handful of you who are the direct descendants of some very high-profile copyright holders whose names are legendary in American art and culture. Those of you who pay attention to my posts or read my blog The Illusion of More know that I regularly follow these issues, but my guess is that copyright is not exactly the most compelling subject. I’d like to suggest, however, that the minority of very wealthy, vested interests who hope to weaken these laws are counting on your ambivalence, counting on you not to understand the extent to which your lives and careers have benefitted, or still benefit, from this particular body of law.
You might have noticed that there is a general trend toward dismantling some of the pillars of the legal framework — most notably voting rights, women’s rights, and environmental laws — that only became law at about the same time our generation was born. Dissatisfaction with the economy and with leadership in general, I believe, has led to a cultural tendency across the political spectrum to tear down many systems asserted by one interest or another to be barriers to the next renaissance of opportunity, growth, and freedom. Included in this are the systems of copyright and patents that have protected the rights of creators and inventors and fostered prosperity.
For nearly two years, I have insinuated myself into this debate because I believe there is much more at stake than the protection of royalties for a songwriter or an author, which are certainly important, but to paraphrase Jaron Lanier from his new book, the creative classes are the “canaries in the coal mine” with regard to the potential economic impact of the digital age. Over these two years, I have met creators, journalists, lawyers, advocates, and policy-makers who believe, as I do, that the overwhelming influence of Silicon Valley is potentially comparable to a second coming of the Robber Baron, albeit in jeans and a hoodie. In fact, in just the last several months, articles have appeared in Forbes, Salon, Newsweek, The Guardian, and others that paint a portrait of the internet industry as a classic ivory tower built of consolidated wealth and a myopia bordering on negligence regarding that industry’s impact on real lives. All while spinning tales of a utopian future.
As we head into Fall, Congress will review copyrights, and your Facebook walls may once again be filled with memes and headlines warning of threats to the internet and to free speech itself, and I encourage you to look beyond the smoke and mirrors. To that end, I’m launching a companion Facebook page for The Illusion of More blog in order to foster more informal discussion and to point you in the direction of real experts, who can answer specific questions better than I in most cases. As for the other 47% of my friends who have nothing to do with copyrights per se, I’ll just mention that it’s many of those 53% who eat in your restaurants, shop in your stores, and hire your services.
Thanks! DN
