Copyright: Why Writers (and everyone else) Should Care
Are your expressions property, the same as your car or your jewelry? Or is there some higher public interest your writings are meant to serve? Are these values mutually exclusive?
Copyright law is in a state of continuing development. Modern technology has made copyright violations of every stripe, whether in the form of e-mail, audio recording, music, fiction, non-fiction, film, news, magazines, graphic design, or any other form of expression easy to copy, paste, forward, and post. Indeed, such takings happen millions of times every day in the modern world. To complicate the matter further, many creators are flattered and pleased when their work is widely noticed in a way they wouldn’t be flattered or pleased if someone stole their car and drove it around the world a few times.
Recently, the debate over the private nature of copyright and the public interest served by our work has renewed vigor. The tension point is about creators making a living, particularly in our tough economy. When I send an e-mail to my mother containing family photographs I’ve taken, I not only want her to share the photos and e-mail with other family members without asking my permission, I’d be disappointed if she didn’t. But when we create something from which we hope to earn enough to feed our families, we do ourselves, our families, and ultimately the public a disservice if we simply give our work away or allow it to be taken without compensation.
Marketers argue a third point of view: we’ll never stop piracy, so we should find a way to monetize it. This is essentially what happened with music sharing and iTunes. Attempts to stop people from sharing copyrighted music without permission or payment were legally successful but practically useless because the time, energy, cost and loss of good will necessary to stop piracy was both enormous and ineffective. iTunes is exceptionally effective because it responds to the desire for music in a market sensitive way by making music easy to get, cheap to buy, easy to monitor, and profitable for artists as well as the entire revenue chain.
The internet has changed our lives, for better and for worse. Simply because technology makes it easy to steal, lie, cheat, gamble, and profit from illegal activities doesn’t mean we creators should enable copyright violations to our own detriment. Whether the public interest is served by our work or not should be a matter for each creator to determine, in my view.
What say you?
