IP

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is an organization dedicated to protecting users' rights in the digital world. In its own words:

"The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was created to defend our rights to think, speak, and share our ideas, thoughts, and needs using new technologies, such as the Internet and the World Wide Web."

Perhaps most importantly:

"EFF is the first to identify threats to our basic rights online and to advocate on behalf of free expression in the digital age."

These are the people who are on the front lines of the battle to prevent the government from mandating the broadcast flag and other such pro-business, anti-consumer legislation.

Their core thesis: new technology has always been threatening to content-providing enterprises, but courts have traditionally favored the rights of technology to exist, and- ironically- content providers have always been better off in the end as a result.

The entertainment distribution industries have consistently resisted adapting to new technology. Instead of embracing new methods of distributing their products, they try to make it illegal for new technologies to disrupt their existing business models.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) have not behaved as forward-thinking advocates of bringing their content to consumers. Rather, they come across as stubborn defenders of the position that their business models are fundamentally threatened by technology, and that their audience is comprised of thieves.

A simple example: the VCR. The MPAA vigorously opposed Sony's Betamax VCR when it was first released, claiming it would lead to rampant piracy and destroy the industry. Courts ruled that the VCR had a right to exist- that the industry's fears of piracy did not outweigh Sony's right to sell its technology. VCRs became extremely popular with consumers, which laid the groundwork for the massive home video (and DVD) market- which wouldn't have existed without the Betamax VCR (even though the Betamax VCR itself died a pretty quick death).

Another example: MP3 players. When Diamond Rio released the first MP3 player in the late 1990's, the RIAA went to court to block it, claiming it was nothing more than a vehicle for piracy. The RIAA's request for an injunction was denied, and the explosion in popularity of MP3 players has led to the development of the Internet as a legal, viable, and profitable means to sell music. (It is telling that it took Apple- a technology company- to force the music industry to take serious steps into the digital distribution game- it wasn't a music industry company that pioneered this avenue on its own.)

Digital distribution of all forms of entertainment is a logical progression and will happen eventually. The only thing standing in the way of it happening now is the fact that copyright holders are afraid to go digital, because the potential for piracy is greater in the digital realm than it was when each copyrighted work existed as a physical "thing" (tape, disc, etc.) that can't easily be stolen or copied.

Copyright holders do need protection for their work- if people cannot profit from creating intellectual property, then there will cease to be a truly competitive marketplace for it. But there is a balance between protection and a product that is fair to consumers. A good model for effective Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology once again comes from Apple- the iTunes Music Store. AppleÂ’s protection makes it difficult for users to give their music files away to other users, but it enables them to pretty much do whatever they want with their music on their own equipment- including burning DRM-free copies of songs onto CD.

Apple just sold their 500,000,000th copy protected song through iTunes- a validation of their consumer-friendly approach to DRM, I would say.

Balance is the critical issue. The rights of the copyright holder and the rights of the consumer must be weighed fairly. Consumers' rights- particularly their right not to be treated as assumed criminals- are important too. In complex situations, where copyright holders' and users' have competing claims- the tie should go to the user.

Copyright law and DRM issues will continue to evolve as digital distribution expands and companies try to put limits on technology to prevent piracy. Wendy Seltzer and Jason Schultz of the EEF gave a talk in March about the threats to innovation they're seeing. I highly recommend checking it out.

This is a very important debate that will have dramatic implications on how we consume information in the future. Do we want to be able to use information on our own terms, or on the terms of companies who want to give us the least possible amount of freedom?

I stand firmly on the side of the consumer- which, historically, has been the side that benefits everyone.