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June 02, 2001
The internet as we know
The internet as we know it is dying, trampled under the brutal heel of corporate control. The villain of the piece is the notion of intellectual property - the idea that knowledge, creativity, and ideas are marketable commodities that can be bought and sold and are the exclusive possession of a single individual or entity.
Intellectual property is something that, at first glance, ought to be anathema. Throughout most of human history, ideas were in the public domain once they originated. Many, indeed most, of the greatest writers, philosophers, and scientists in history collected little remuneration from their work, but took pleasure in the joy of discovery and the magic of invention.
Science cannot flourish if access to vital information is closely guarded and made available only for a high price. The usual justification for this is incentive theory; the notion that, without incentives to receive profit from the ownership of their ideas, artists and inventors will have no incentive to produce.
In point of fact, this is absolute nonsense. An artist who produces music that the public likes will always be well-paid; an inventor will receive monies, a software developer who makes quality software will be handsomely paid. The more fundamental question is: does the creator of an idea deserve compensation for every individual use of their work?
I would argue that the answer should be no. Knowledge is the domain of all humanity. The only exception is if the creator's idea is being used to make money; if someone is making money based on someone else's ideas, the originator of the idea is within their moral rights to expect compensation.
In this case, Britney Spears would have the right to sue anyone who began selling CDs of her music without her permission. She would not, however, be able to sue anyone who downloaded MP3s from Napster without her permission. Napster, in turn, would only have to compensate the copyright holder if it was selling access to its file-sharing servers.
Similarly, in this vein, students have every right to photocopy textbooks and journal articles freely, as long as they do not publish for profit any of the material contained therein. Copyright laws also have a legitimate use in preventing plagiarism; acknowledgement of the original.
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Posted by Tyrone at June 2, 2001 06:22 PM