Yep,
theknife, it's an excellent essay and definitely worth a read!
To give an idea what it is about, here are a couple of brief quotes from the
story:
Quote:
If you can set the rules, you can win the contest. That's the major reason the entertainment cartel is winning the debate over copyright in the Digital Age.
Average people are not part of the conversation, not in any way that matters. To the cartel and its chattel in the halls of political power, we are nothing but "consumers" - our sole function is to eat what the movie, music and publishing industries put in front of us, and then send money.
........
The first thing we can do is stop letting the entertainment companies set the terms of the discussion. They torture language and logic. Let's restore some balance.
• One of their most noteworthy achievements, notes Stanford law Professor Lawrence Lessig, is to frame the debate in a way that presents two extreme choices. Unless Hollywood and its allies gain absolute control over digital music, movies and other "content", insist the cartel members, there will be anarchy - a situation in which no creative person can ever be compensated for his or her work.
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- tg
