Copyright matters

What so many people forget about in the ongoing debates on copyright is that these protective walls have allowed writers and artists to actually create and have a shot at making a living over the last several hundred years. Is copyright broken? Perhaps. But any fix should not be a wholesale destruction, but a mitigation of some of the onerous extensions that major corporations have insisted on in recent years and a strengthening of “fair use” provisions to broaden what can legitimately be borrowed. However, it amazes me that many people no longer believe that artists and writers should have a right to control the sale and distribution of their own work, and it equally amazes me that they don’t see the consequences of such a loss. Unbridled free market economies, essentially libertarian free-for-alls, do not give space for the creation of great and engaging work. Instead, they lead the charge for a lowest common denominator fits all world.

An excellent discussion in today’s New York Times on this, authored by Scott Turow, Paul Aiken and James Shapiro. Here’s an excerpt:

Certainly there’s a place for free creative work online, but that cannot be the end of it. A rich culture demands contributions from authors and artists who devote thousands of hours to a work and a lifetime to their craft. Since the Enlightenment, Western societies have been lulled into a belief that progress is inevitable. It never has been. It’s the result of abiding by rules that were carefully constructed and practices that were begun by people living in the long shadow of the Dark Ages. We tamper with those rules at our peril.