February 17, 2003
Le Weekend II

Later on Saturday, Anne and I went off to attend the panel discussion entitled "Who Owns Ideas? Intellectual Rights and Wrongs", which was coordinatively brought together by Chicago's The Public Square and the Illegal Art folks.

The panel members were Jenny Toomey (unfortunately introduced 2 times as Jean), DJ Spooky, Lawrence Lessig and Jonathan Tasini.

All in all it was a good panel discussion, though I'm not sure new ground was broken - the speakers all come from the jaundiced view of copyright school at best, and no pro-copyright-extension, pro-DMCA-style-protections, or media consolidation advocates were present.

Lessig, each time I've seen him, has seemed to express darker views. I don't think it's because he recently was handed a loss by the Supreme Court, but rather that it's likely an aspect of being a lawyer (read: struggling for optimism in a pragmatic art). For example, when Jenny Toomey advocated rolling back the consolidation of media interest regulations being relaxed by the FCC, Lessig pointed out that the US Supreme Court was more likely to rule now that ANY regulation of such ownership is contrary to constitutional protections.

Despite the gloaming of consolidation and the rest, not all is without hope; inside the classic union rhetoric of Tasini is hope for reform of how creators can do business, in Lessig's calls for individual action of creators are some nascent tools to TAKE action, and in Toomey's acting for education of creators so that they can see the need for action, all combining for subtle but possible changes.

There are multiple sides to this die, and one of these is the distribution network. How can organizations that have real costs - costs of paper, of postage - treat the creators as fairly as possible yet continue to survive. These aren't the conglomerates of the world, nor the internet creators or the zinesters; but the small publishers, the advocacy organizations and associations. Close to the creators, yet subtly different Somehow they fit into this discussion, but weren't addressed that night.

Unfortunately DJ Spooky arrived late - delayed by an earlier engagement. So he didn't mesh with the the tenor of the panel to that point, effectively (and repetitiously) advocating that a lack of respect for current copyright law (as in extensive bootlegging of copyrighted works) is a way out; what he didn't address is how all sides can come together in such a world, where the creators vs the copyright holders vs the consumer can all live in an information universe together. Instead, he came off (inadvertently, and contrary to who I suspect he is intellectually) as almost a "theft is good" mouther, rather than the reasoned response to the Valenti's of the world.

Posted by esinclai at February 17, 2003 10:39 AM |