Debate 4/Debate 4 Argument Against

Resolved: The outcome of the digital intellectual property crisis is crucial to whether or not the use of the Internet ultimately has a positive impact in terms of strengthening democracies.

Work in progress. Incorporated outline from meeting; still adding

Introduction

Framing the Debate

• Thus far in this course, we have discussed the impact of the internet in terms of strengthening democracy through the lenses of participatory democracy and economic democracy. This week, we're extending our analysis to include semiotic democracy--the democratization of the formation of culture--and asking in what ways changing intellectual property laws influence the impact of the internet on these 3 conceptions of democracy.
• We make two arguments with respect to this week’s resolution:
  • First, IP laws have little effect on Internet's ability to positively impact participatory democracy (and less significantly, economic democracy). Even in the case of an entirely dead semiotic democracy, the Internet’s profound impact here is clear.
    • Only in the most improbable scenarios would IP laws become so harsh as to affect not only the prospects of the internet contributing to a flourishing semiotic democracy, but the prospects of a strengthening participatory democracy as well.
  • Second, even accepting a neutral effect of the internet on participatory democracy, semiotic democracy can flourish in an environment of harsh IP laws, in a "Free Culture Stack," independent of proprietary culture. The extent to which a "Free Culture" stack flourishes will correlate directly with the harshness of IP laws.
    • We must understand that even if legal standards existed for content holders to fully protect and control their content, this "read-only" Internet is simply unlikely to emerge. Just because content holders will possess the power potential to do this, it is unlikely they will. Consumer preferences will simply inhibit any attempt to impose such restrictive controls. If the "right to read" scenario comes to pass, the author that publishes under a less restrictive licensing regime will become an instant bestseller.

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http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w34/adjkatz/CopyrightSchemes.jpg

===What is the crisis?=== (For a good summary, see Terry Fisher's post on Lessig's blog: http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/002245.shtml)

• Copyright law vs. private ordering
  • Lessig's four modes of control: even if copyright is less restrictive, technology allows creators to lock down their content (ebooks, copy protection, broadcast flag). So we're really talking about relaxing copyright law and placing limits on what authors can do with their content.
  • How do we set the limits?

http://lumpau.freeshell.org/four_modalities.png

Intellectual Property Laws and Participatory Democracy

No matter how the IP 'crisis' unfolds, participatory democracy, on balance, will be strengthened by the internet.

Even if a very restrictive IP regime were to emerge, participatory democracy on the Internet will not be substantially affected. Among the positive impacts of the internet on participatory democracy that would not be affected by IP laws, include (see Debate 1 for detailed arguments):

• • • The
    • The argument against a positive impact of the internet on participatory democracy is weak, perhaps boiling down to merely the following quote:
      • Fine, the internet has made contacting other people for political reasons easier. But that is because it has made everything easier. Shopping, spreading gossip, and finding friends are all easier now. But this makes it all a wash. If the internet made ONLY political action easier, more people would gravitate toward political action than otherwise would. But, since everything is easier, people will gravitate toward their predisposed tendencies. "It's easier to shop now, yay!

Restrictive IP Laws May Actually Benefit Participatory Democracy

It is possible that a restrictive IP regime will actually be beneficial to participatory democracy online.

• Political blogging tends to the extremes
  • Why?
    • Content creation activities are time-consuming and labor intensive. Current lack of economic incentives may be leading to a clustering on the extremes within the online community's intellectual debate. Greater economic incentives will encourage more mainstream participation in Internet debate and discussion.
• A restrictive IP regime could increase the economic incentives for content creators (bloggers, vloggers, podcasters) and thus encourage an increasing number of people to actively engage in the intellectual debate.

What is the connection between Semiotic Democracy and Participatory Democracy?

The IP crisis principally effects the workings of semiotic democracy. It is unclear the extent to which semiotic democracy (the manipulation and sharing of extant cultural products) and participatory democracy overlap. For every "Vote Different" ad that uses existing cultural products to further political discussion there are thousands of blog posts, comments, and Internet videos, that are entirely unaffected by IP concerns in the cultural sphere.

• No matter how strict copyright is, the Internet will still have a positive impact on democratic discourse.
  • Can still blog ("bloggers will be the last to go" quote? - will they ever go?)
• What if cultural creativity and political participation are to a certain extent mutually exclusive? I.e., I'm too busy watching movies on Youtube to vote?

Is Semiotic Democracy Important?

Perhaps it's not so terrible that there won't be too much culture:

• Corollary to Shirky's law: the long tail is crap
  • http://www.whatacrappypresent.com: "My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard \ And they're like, it's better than yours"

Free Culture Stack

• In the long run, copyright doesn't matter.
  • Internet and cheap computing enables participation by many. This new culture is fundamentally different from mass culture. Unlike traditional authors, who are motivated by money, individual authors are motivated by status.
  • There are a lot of people who want to create for status using ubiquitous technology building on the works of others.
    • http://www.magnatune.com : "We are not evil"
    • Red v. Blue: http://rvb.roosterteeth.com/archive/episode.php?id=213
  • A free culture stack is emerging
    • Creative Commons
    • GNU FDL
    • The existing licenses are not ideal. For example, Creative Commons may have too many possible license combinations to have a clear ideological message. Still, better licenses can and will emerge if there is a need.
  • Soon (if not already), authors will be able to exercise their creativity using only free components.

Case study: Free software

• The GNU project arose out of increasing proprietary restrictions on software
• Today, [building on more than 20 years of free software, users can use 100% free software for day-to-day work (K Desktop Environment, OpenOffice.org). The LAMP stack (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) is the platform of choice for web developing and hosting.
• Importantly, anyone can create new software using the existing stack.
  • SourceForge, the largest repository of free software on the Internet, has almost 150,000 projects and more than 1.5 million users
• Free software is driven by user innovation, which means it can identify and meet users' needs more quickly and accurately. Similarly, free culture gives authors and users what they want, not what Hollywood thinks they want.

Free Culture Might Be Better Than Proprietary Culture

• Is one kind of creativity better than another?
  • What if I want to use proprietary culture in my work but can't (e.g., Lessig's Simpson's example)

Restrictive IP Laws Lead to Greater Demand for "Free Culture"

• In fact, free culture needs a strong copyright system
  • Licenses operate within the copyright space
  • Strict copyright is the driving force behind free culture.
    • Free software arose out of proprietary UNIX
    • Free culture will arise out of proprietary culture.
    • Strict copyright allows users and authors to send a clear signal about themselves, their work, and their beliefs

• A "copyright market" is developing with a dynamic equilibrium where more restrictive copyright laws lead to greater market share for free culture.

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Outcomes

• What is likely vs. what is possible? E.g., are we expecting Stallman's Right to Read or something less severe?
• Is there really a crisis?
  • The possibility that government could provide through law the means for content holders to more actively restrict the use of IP does not mean content companies will necessarily take advantage of the full latent power of legislation. It is very possible that we are overestimating the extent to which the major content companies will aggressively pursue/demand more restrictive IP systems. Evidence suggests that common-sense assumptions about the economic hazards of less-restrictive IP systems for media companies are wrong. (See Study of Music Piracy Effect on Record Sales) Furthermore, media companies are beginning to acknowledge this possibility (See EMI and Apple). Companies gain considerable benefits from relaxing the IP protection on their content. As new and innovative approaches to monetization develop, the rewards of openness are likely to increase. (See Lorne Michaels on the SNL and YouTube). The digital IP crisis may simply resolve itself in the face of consumer preference for greater openness. If consumers are willing to pay an extra $.30 a track for DRM free music, companies will follow.