I'll take the other side.
The concept of protecting intellectual property needs to be revisited. Generally, the content creator has too many rights which, if enforced, would make everyone a criminal. Afterall, if I play a song on my laptop in a public place, is anyone who is listening in violation? Am I 'illegally distributing' content? What if I am using a boom box in my backyard? Or a block party? In a public park?
Companies copyright/patent everything so they can sue people for competing. Apple has patented just about every motion that can be made with human digits. It's crazy.
Patents and copyright were created to give IP developers a chance to make a fair profit for their effort. Now these rights span generations.
A reasonable approach would have creators licensing redistribution to warehousers who would grant license to a library for a reasonable fee. The fee would be low enough that no one would be willing to acquire and warehouse their own content yet high enough to continue to reward content creation and management.
That's where we are headed right now as Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and others cloud up. I would rather pay $8 for unlimited access for a month than collect and manage my own collection.
|