Defending Artists’ Rights
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 by Patrick Ross
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I just got back from speaking on a panel by the Association for Competitive Technology. The panel ostensibly was on space-shifting, and ACT's Morgan Reed and Debbie Rose discussed how there are all sorts of great technologies that allow you to move video around, and how some of it is clearly legal while others are in a gray area. I couldn't argue with that assessment. Debbie also said she felt these were conflicts that should be worked out in the marketplace, and I agreed with that as well. As I said regarding the creative community and the tech community, "We can legislate, or we can cooperate. We can litigate, or we can negotiate."
For whatever reason, Public Knowledge's Gigi Sohn wasn't feeling cooperative. She was upset at being, in her mind anyway, outnumbered on the panel. I know what it's like to be outnumbered, it's happened a lot and it's not fun. It is, however, to be expected with these types of things. I was invited recently to be on a panel in Boston where I would have been outnumbered 4 to 1, and I still would have done it for the opportunity to get the truth out if I hadn't had a conflict.
The debate moved away from space shifting and entered more generally into the area of fair use. I'm hesitant to say what Gigi said, because on the panel she frequently took umbrage with others' paraphrasing of her words (she creatively reinterpreted mine a few times, but such is life), but she seemed to be saying that if you "lawfully acquire" a creative work, you should be free to use it in myriad personal ways. ACT's Jonathan Zuck asked if that meant that creators can never come up with new business models that might allow payments for different uses; Gigi responded that she hasn't seen a lot of new business models. That didn't really address the question — the question was should fair use be allowed to preclude new rights models — but so be it. (I should note Debbie asked a similar question earlier and Gigi didn't answer it then either.)
My recurring theme throughout the panel was that artists' rights must be respected. New technologies are fun and cool, and it's great when we can enjoy creative works in new ways. But the creators need to be included in that equation, and not by merely having some money thrown their way, but by having their rights respected so they can determine the best way for the work to be licensed.
I saw such licensing deals at CES in January, and I'm seeing further cooperation with agreement on principles among creators and tech companies. Gigi painted a very dark picture of the future at the event, but for me the future is a bright one. Market solutions are springing up left and right that respect artists' rights, and that is all to the good.
