More innovation less legislation!
We Have Every Right To Be Furious About ACTA
By Maria Sutton and Parker Higgens
Friday, January 27, 2012
By Maria Sutton and Parker Higgens
Friday, January 27, 2012
Last week’s historic
protests made clear just what the tech community and Internet users are
capable of accomplishing when they act together – not only have the Protect IP
Act (PIPA) and its House counterpart, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), been
tabled for now, but in a welcome change, the public debate has increasingly
considered the interests of Internet users and the opinions of those who
actually understand how the technology works. Despite this, we keep hearing
people ask: what’s next? And where do we go from here? Our answers: We don’t
need legislation. And let’s keep moving innovation forward.
The answer to maintaining an open, thriving Internet does not
lay in legislation, but rather in fostering innovative (and oftentimes
disruptive) business models that allow content creators to get paid and
consumers to have easy and efficient access to content. We’ve seen time and
again that consumers are willing
to pay at a price point that makes sense for them – this is Economics 101.
When new business models emerge, artists
and fans win. It’s only the traditional distributers and gatekeepers (we’re
looking at you, MPAA and RIAA) who lose, so it’s no wonder that those parties
desperately tried to ram through dangerous legislation to stop disruptive new
business models, with no regard for the attendant serious potential collateral
damage.
Remember, these are the lobbies that have
a history of attacking nascent technologies as far back as the player piano.
A modern day case in point: last week’s public takedown of
MegaUpload. We’ve only heard one side of the story so far, so let’s set aside
the many outstanding legal questions. But it’s clear that many
artists were using the site to connect with their fans. Given the legacy
media companies’ reluctance to innovate internally, it’s especially unfortunate
that the dramatic takedown of MegaUpload could chill
future innovators who would otherwise experiment with new business
models.
To be sure, there are plenty of exciting new content services
emerging. For example, take the Humble Indie Bundle, video game developers who
have realized substantial success devising a pay-what-you-want
scheme for distributing video games. Or artists like Jonathan Coulton, who
has, with much success, produced and distributed his own music (and who recently
provided this pithy advice to creators who reject new business models but
complain about piracy: "Make good stuff,
then make it easy for people to buy it. There’s your anti-piracy plan.").
Everyday, examples like Humble Indie Bundle, Jonathan
Coulton, and others (such as Louis
C.K. and Nina
Paley, for example) are becoming the norm, not the exception. And, in doing
so, they make the best case against those in D.C. who claim that we need
dangerous and overbroad laws to save an antiquated business model. Instead, we
need to protect the open Internet that is only beginning to realize its promise
of revolutionizing not just the way we do business, but the ways we communicate,
interact, and democratically govern
ourselves.
For that reason, we will continue to monitor (and, where
necessary, take on) the fights in D.C. and the courts that threaten an open and
innovative Internet. Join us in that
fight, won’t you?
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home