Copyright Talk

This post is about big companies. Big companies exist for the purpose of making money. They do some other things along the way, but legally their mandate is to make money for their owners. That’s the way the system is set up. So big companies are continually looking for ways to make more money. They can do this basically four ways:
1. add new products
2. increase sales of old products
3. reduce the cost of making their products (without dropping the sales price)
4. raise prices

In the last three decades, the US economy has become vastly more involved with intellectual property products - what is often referred to as a knowledge based economy. Consequently, copyright law has come into sharp focus for big companies looking to increase the money they make. Companies that use knowledge as their raw material are looking at ways to reduce the cost of that raw material, just as manufacturing companies are constantly looking at ways to reduce the cost of their raw materials. Costs can be driven down by reducing labor costs (mechanizing, eliminating labor unions), ands by reducing other costs (fewer environmental regulations, for example). Some cost reductions can be dealt with by direct negotiation, others require legal and policy changes.

Some big companies that use or produce knowledge products are and have been looking for ways to reduce the cost of their raw materials, and one front has been the assault on copyright. Companies that depend on the use of works owned by others (Google, internet radio, cell phone companies, etc) have been busy working to convince the public and congress that copyright regulations are onerous, unecessary and harmful to the public and the US economy. On the other side, big companies that own knowledge products have been busy trying the convince the public and congress that copyright laws are poorly enforced, terms are too short, and that fair use is being abused.

That’s the fight. And while access to knowledge and creative works is good for humanity, the fight is not being waged on that basis. It’s being waged by the people with the money to wage the battle, and the reason they are waging the battle is because their reason for existence is to find ways to make more money.

I hope Congress has the sense to be sure and explore the third side of the debate before making policy decisions.