Lessig on How to Save and Stoke the Recombinant Economy

Love him or hate him, you have to admire Lawrence Lessig for constantly pushing at what's next and how to make it better.  Case in point, his recent speech to a room full of hackers.  In the Berlin presentation, he makes the case for a way to reform the current copyright system in order to better maximize the creativity and commerce that is enabled by new technologies.  (Naturally, many of those in the audience would simply want to do away with copyright).

You can see the hour-plus presentation here.  Some rough notes on it after the jump -- including Lessig's claim that any "progressive" legislation is a lost cause for the next 20 years.....

Notes:

Lessig makes the case to reform the copyright system, but says first what won't enable change.  Namely (and in his words):

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1)  Illegal Hacking.  Redoubled effort by hackers to break the system and to break DRM won't help.  Not because DRM is good.  But, because we need to remember the drastic actions of the other side.  Resistence via outright destruction won't work.

2) Progressive legislation won't work in the next 20 years.  In IP regulation, the Democrats are just as insane as anyone else in the US. The most extreme pro-Hollywood member of Congress was elected to the committee in charge of IP rules (ed:  Lessig is referring to Howard Berman -- who he recently took on in his blog).  But, activists did nothing about preventing Berman's ascent, because we take for granted that even our friends are our enemies. The idea that we can go through Congress and change this insanity of regulation is just not going to happen.

3) Lawsuits.  We liberal law professors love the idea that whenever there is a wrong in America, we can rush to a court and fix them.  But, the courts don't understand these issues, either.  Court strategies are long term losers.

We don't need to convince a handful of judges we need to convince 100 million people.

What do we do?

Once upon a time, there was radio broadcasters in America that were held hostage by a publishers society (ASCAP).  After ASCAP said that they would double fees in 1940, a lawyer created a competing publishers society called BMI.

BMI made arrangements of public domain music to affiliates for free.  When ASCAP raised rates, stations went to BMI's "second best" content.  The result:  By 1941, ASCAP rates went down to their 1937 level.

Now, what can we do with the model of BMI?

Now, with average copyright of 85 years, it isn't possible to use public
domain work.

Part of the solution comes with Creative Commons to create a hybrid strategy.

Sharing Economy:  If used for non-commercial, than there is a way distribute, but if commercial, there is no way to compensate.

You can create alternative licensing structures.

You must add a technology that facilitates crossover from the sharing economy to commercial
economy.

To use this we will build the interoperability between licensees and integrate into the infrastructure of where creativity gets built, so entrepreneurs can leverage the extraordinary creativity that has been built on the Net.

There are many people who question this.  Including many people who think we have compromised the free ethos in our licensing structure.

I don't want copyright to die, I want it to be reformed.

There are many people who disagree, who only want to make things free....

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And, then Lessig lost me with a long discussion on software licensing and other acronym-heavy side-bars.

For a more sober (but not necessarily negative) perspective on Creative Commons as a copyright savior, see IPCentral's "commons" thread. 

Comments

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This is a good,common sense article.Very helpful to one who is just finding the resouces about this part.It will certainly help educate me

[Michelle]

I think the biggest cecronn in having to purchase a license is does the artist or copyright owner really get paid? I think most people want the artists to get paid if even to encourage them to make more great music. I play music at church and I also perform at local clubs. At the church we are required to submit a list of the songs we play every week so the money gets to the artist who created it. I don't see how clubs, restaurants can keep track of all the songs played in there place between the radio DJ's and live music you would need to hire a full time person just to keep track of what songs were played on any given day. To me this is where the real problem lies Ascap and BMI I'm sure are taking in the money but there is no way they could pay all the artists that get played in one day. So there is the racket in this whole debate in a church situation we are only playing a hand full of songs a week. In the clubs We could give a set list to owner many nights the set list changes as we go along but then there is music played in between the sets and throughout the day before we even start who is supposed to keep track of all this. I am all for the artists being paid but don't tell us this would happen with the current system in place. Fix the system and maybe we could have a better response and willingness to support artists. Ed

[Leonardo]

Hi , I am trying to find these cnttracos, as I am dealing directly with the TV producer of a pilot series, 1. RATE SHEET, for licensing and usage of my music in a film production. 2. Sync rights Contract. 3. Mechanical license cnttracos. Can you help me find these? I am going CRAZY on this machine, trying to find out 3 simple things. Tx Pamela

[Merry]

That argument doesn't fly. Playing music in a reasuartnt, club, or whatever isn't about promoting the SONGWRITERS who wrote the songs, OR the artists who recorded them. It's about promoting the reasuartnt, club, etc. Promotion is when an artist goes on David Letterman and performs their song.. .and guess what, The Letterman Show, pays royalties to ASCAP and BMI Radio airplay is also a kind of promotion.. .and you guessed it, radio stations pay royalties to these organizations, too.When you play music in your bar, reasuartnt, or store, you're using the music to create an atmosphere conducive to patrons having a good time, buying food and drink, products, etc. You have to pay for the products yous sell, the food, wine liquor you serve, the supplies used to serve it, the labor, etc., and the electricity, gas, water, etc., required to maintain the comfortable buying atmosphere. Think of the music just like the electricity, if that helps get your head around this.When you buy a CD or iTunes download, you're entitled to use the music for PERSONAL use. As soon as you cross into the COMMERCIAL space, where you're performing the music for the public, a public performance royalty is required. That's the law. If you don't like it, tell your congresspeople. The music industry isn't perfect, true.. But that's not an excuse to make unauthorized use of their products.

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