THE OBAMA CHIP: Can “Hope” Mean the End of Copyrights?

Written by: Moses Avalon on November 18, 2008.

Share with your network.





By Moses Avalon

As the left-leaning entertainment world parties like drunken sailors for the coming Obama administration they will simultaneously need to keep a close eye on the new guy; Obama may be dismantling copyrights under the banner of “change.” With the trade imbalance in the hundreds of billions can we afford to weaken Intellectual Property, (IP) one of the US’s largest exports?

Obama’s administration will see the creation of a new job, the CTO, Chief Technology Officer.The President Elect has created this new role to aid him in making decisions that will effect economic policy in what Obama perceives to be one of the most important industries in the US—technology.The tech world is lit up about the new CTO czar in their corner. Is there a danger to the music space? Yes.

As many of my readers know, the music (and indeed the content world in general) is at war with ISPs.As Google digitizes every book in existence for free public viewing and tech-sponsored special interest groups like the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) lobby for more relaxed copyright laws, music is gradually, day by day becoming the free toy at the bottom of the tech-world’s cereal box.Movies are next, as well as books, and who knows, maybe even sensitive blueprints.

What will the CTO do?There will be a live feed of government meetings over the net and YOU will be able to respond to new policy as they are debated. Cool. The CTO will make sure everything is plugged in and working correctly.(Remember the A/V geeks from high school?)There will also be chips in cable boxes (the Obama Chip, I guess we’ll call it) that allows parents (as well as the Fed) to monitor viewing habits. The CTO will over see that.

But there’s far more to Obama’s tech polices that are worth knowing about if you plan, as an author on navigating the digital landscape of tomorrow. And also worth noting is that Obama is not just looking for some ex-hippy college professor for CTO, he’s trolling in the upper echelon of IT heaven. He’s already asked Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer and Amazon President and CEO Jeff Bezos. They turned him down– for now.

All this would be fine if our new President had an IP specialist by his side supplying balance to ensure copyrights don’t erode. Right now the likely candidate for IP advisor is Law Professor, Lawrence Lessig, who has been advising the President Elect during his campaign.

For those who do not know Mr. Lessig’s work, if you’re a songwriter or artist now is the time to become familiar with it. He’s not exactly a fan of copyrights, at least not the way many artists think of them and he could, beginning in January have the ear of the new President;a President who has put at his other side, a powerful CTO farmed from and connected to the tech elite.

If you derive your living from IP, and you’re not worried, then you’re not paying attention.

From Wikipedia: “Lessig is a founding board member of Creative Commons, a board member of the Software Freedom Law Center and a former board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He is best known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology applications.”

Great.

Adding to this is the fact that IP issues will, starting next January, be elevated from the subcommittee level in the House of Representatives to that of the full Judiciary Committee.

Although tech-friendly trades have spun this as a minor victory for IP, in fact all this does is raise the stakes.Decisions made at the Congressional level are very hard to reverse and those decisions will now have a tech-bias to bolster that industry’s already formidable lobbying efforts against music and entertainment rights holders.

LESSIG OF TWO EVILS

Whether Lessig is a copyright reformer or destroyer depends on your point of view.Thus we enter the world “copyrightists” and copyleftists,” as these terms have evolved.

“Rightists” like things the way they are: authors get to control completely how their copyrights work.They own a monopoly on its distribution.“Leftists” believe that the internet requires we re-examine the need and authority of copyrights; maybe authors shouldn’t have absolute say, and in the extreme, no say at all.

This is not unprecedented.In fact, the concept of ownership in a creative work is relatively new to civilization.Troubadours in the middle ages had no ownership over the songs they authored. Bach and Mozart also had no copyrights, yet their work survives–leftists assuage–because there were no restrictions.One thing leftists leave out of this argument is that all the above left little to nothing to their families because there was no legal infrastructure for them to exploit and protect their work.

But, leftists feel that the common good should outweigh the individual rights of the author.How does this manifest in the music space: leftists (like the EFF and blobger Bob Lefsetz) take the position that illegal P2P is fine, and that artists, labels and publishers should just grow up, chill and go with the flow.

Naturally, those that derive their living from copyrights disagree.

INFORMATION (R)AGE

Obama’s new policies call for a “full and free exchange of information.”There is little room for interpretation in his wording: a free and open net is what the next president feels is best for the Nation. I wonder what acts of anger will be inspired if indeed, as this hints, IP is demoted to mere “information.”

I have a great deal of passion about wanting the Obama Nation to succeed.Does that mean that my contribution to the new and better world of “hope” must be the erosion of the laws that allow my industry to prosper?This is tough stuff for those of us with a conscience.

Mr. President Elect, if these words somehow find your eyes, I implore you, I beg you to consider your moves in this space carefully.

Bill Clinton was the socially liberal/fiscal conservative poster-child, yet he signed into law one of the worst (and most right-wing) pieces of legislation in entertainment history; one that allowed radio stations to consolidate and thus contribute to the decline of a great American tradition and industry.He meant well, but he sold out an important principal of commerce, growth through competition, not consolidation.It was mistake that I’m sure he now regrets.

Please don’t make the same one.Entertainment and copyrights aren’t just a cool thing; they represent about one-quarter of the US exports. Before you make a move Mr. President, please think hard and perhaps, read this piece called the “DRM Manifesto,” for balance.

Mo out