The issue becomes not allowing regulations and controls to get out of hand to the point where real barriers are being placed on artists ability to distribute their work, and listeners ability to hear it. And even in the conference, for all that the core issue is always cited as being the welfare of the artists, they were sorely underrepresented. It was a meeting of gate keepers of various positions, strengths and sizes. And their position is important to the flow of information, as long as a balance is created so that the flow remains steady and doesn’t slow to a trickle.
The fact that you’re reading this on a web-based publication, and that I write for one probably puts us both on one side of this debate. Internet good, companies bad. Free access good, limits bad. But what the conference did do well was to present a variety of views and viewpoints within each panel – people who were or represented artists, the industry, the broadcasters, the law. Whatever your opinion on the issues, it gave a real picture of the debate going on outside that small conference room. The information flowed freely, and listeners were given choice to make up their own minds.
Isn’t that what technology and intellectual property should be all about?
For more on the conference, and streaming video of all the panels, head to the Technology and IP Policy Day 2007 site.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
super job Claire, thanks so much!
2 - bliffle
Why struggle to enforce old monopolistic business models? Let them die, and then form new business models.
The whole concept of copyrights has been so abused that it no longer serves a useful purpose.