Simonsays

Locking down the future and what you can do to help

As a communicator with an understanding of the Internet, I'd always advise my clients that the web is fundamentally changing the ways we communicate, consume and produce media and culture and in order to survive (or at least stay relevant) they need to adapt.

Similarly, the web is making findamental changes in almost every other industry touched by society and culture and ditto they must adapt to maintain relevant in the networked world - both now and in the future.

However, when it comes to the music, film and entertainment industries it seems that they are investing heavily in preserving the past, rather than acknowledging where the future will lie.

Sadly, one result of this is a horribly flawed EU Directive which proposes doubling the current term on music copyright.

This action is opposed by all of Europe’s leading intellectual property research centres and makes little economic, technological or cultural sense. But don't take my word for it. The UK-based Open Rights Group (disclosure, I volunteer time to support ORG) has produced this nifty little video explaining the issues at stake.

Having just finished Lawrence Lessig's Remix (review to follow) this is a major issue which not only risks atrophing the economy but also criminalises the next generation of artists/creators.

You can add your support in the following ways:

1. Invite your MEP to attend the 27 January event on your behalf (you can get their contact details here: UK residents; Other EU residents)
2. 3) Invite your MEP to sign the Sound Copyright petition
3. 4) Ask your MEP to watch the Open Rights Group’s cartoon “How copyright term extension in Sound Recordings actually works”

Happy 2009 (unless the government gets in the way)

As a rule I try not to 'do' predictions or resolutions at New Year. But I thought I'd flag how the UK Government plans to not only resurrect it's data intercept modernisation programme, but to outsource it as well, according to the story in today's Guardian.

Personally, I find the route down which our digital rights are being taken in the UK extremely worrying especially given the much more progressive and sustainable direction being taken in the US by Obama's incoming administration.

On the cards for 2009 we have the revised plan for the data intercept modernisation programme (being driven by the security and intelligence agencies), Lord Carter's Digital Britain initiative (any info anyone?) and plans to take a tougher approach on copyright/file-sharing.

Ironically, the latter two also present major opportunities to kick-start the UK economy if handled correctly. But let's wait and see shall we...

Happy New Year to all and here's to a prosperous 2009!

Technorati tags: UK Government, Data Intercept Modernisation Programme, Digital Britain, 2009

The Longtail is thoroughly debunked by empirical research

I posted back in July reminding those of us who take current Internet theories such as The Wisdom of Crowds at face value that many of these ideas are primarily marketing tools, rather than tested, research-based approaches.

As a fascinating follow-up to this, Alan Patrick from Broadsight has posted a fascinating analysis of Internet uber-theory, The Longtail, titled: 'The end of The Longtail?'

Alan posts about a recent presentation given by an MCPS-PRS Alliance economist, Will Page, which argued that The Longtail is "fairly completely incorrect".

Page apparently helped Chris Anderson write The Longtail thesis, but has since carried out empirical research on a huge volume of global online music sales. The research found:

"while there was a long tail, it was extremely poverty stricken and much of it is moribund [...] even Free doesn’t work - when Radiohead gave away their music for free, there were still 400,000 illegal downloads in the UK. Not only that, they have found that illegal services focus on the “hit head” even more than the average."

Hypothesising further, Alan reckons that most demand curves are Log Normal rather than Pareto Power Law Curves, an opinion strongly supported by one of the researchers.

A full and thorough debunking of The Longtail based on the research can also be found by Andrew Orlowski over at The Register.

As a footnote to this, it is maybe worth adding that the researchers work for an organization that enforces commercial copyright on behalf of composers, songwriters and music publishers.

Technorati tags: The Longtail, Internet Theories, Power Law, Log Normal

Copyright is criminalising the future

More on Lawrence Lessig's superb WSJ column to which I linked previously.

Lessig's mini-essay does a superb job at revealing the stupidity of the unthinking, process-obsessed application of copyright laws. As his prime example he cites the case of Stephanie Lenz's video on Youtube of her 13 month-old child dancing to the Prince track, Let's Go Crazy, for all of 29 seconds.

Shortly after posting the video, Youtube was sent a letter from Universal Music on behalf of Prince demanding the video be removed.

Lessig asks rightly:

"How is it that sensible people, people no doubt educated at some of the best universities and law schools in the country, would come to think it a sane use of corporate resources to threaten the mother of a dancing 13-month-old?"

In addition to highlighting this type of moronic activity Lessig helpfully points us towards some key policy solutions which will help governments, regulators and policy-makers understand and interpret how copyright should evolve in the (very near) future.

Although primarily US-centric, these can act as guidance for the UK/Europe and include:

• Deregulate amateur remix
• Deregulate "the copy"
• Simplify
• Restore efficiency
• Decriminalize Gen-X

I won't go into these in detail - you'll have to read the column for that. But the final point, Decriminalize Gen-X, moves me. Lessig observes:

"The war on peer-to-peer file-sharing is a failure. After a decade of fighting, the law has neither slowed file sharing, nor compensated artists. We should sue not kids, but for peace, and build upon a host of proposals that would assure that artists get paid for their work, without trying to stop "sharing.""

As if these words weren't prescient enough, we need only look at what the BPI is going in the UK in an effort to build the crumbling walls around copyright even higher.

Lessig's column is an extract from his forthcoming book: Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy

Technorati tags: Lawrence Lessig, Copyright, future, Remix

Clay Shirky Responds to the Copyright Issue

A few weeks back I blogged about a fascinating review by Swiss academic Felix Stalder of the social media book of the year, Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody (HCE).

I won't rehash the full review, but in a nutshell Stalder points out that while HCE reveals how the social web ‘cannot be contained in the institutional structure of society’, Shirky fails to address how this unbeliveably transformative emerging collective/social power is challenged by the centralised systems on which the social web primarily operates.

At the core of these systems is the default tool used since the very earliest days of the industrial revolution to protect IP: copyright.

This, to Stalder, represents a "structural imbalance" or "tension" which he believes Shirky misses. Stalder goes as far as to say Shirky misses this deliberately as he consults with precisely the centralised media businesses in whose interest copyright functions.

As fortune would have it. I had the opportunity to put this question to Clay Shirky via Faster Future's, David Cushman.

Here's what he had to say:

 

Having watched the video a couple of times my reaction is that Shirky doesn't really offer a robust defence of Stalder's criticisms. To argue that he never intended on HCE covering the copyright debate is a bit of a cop out IMHO. Copyright/DRM is a major issue, couldn't a passing reference explaining the ommission have been made?

I also think that Shirky derails Stalder's argument by arguing that copyright is only an issue for media and broadcasters. This seems to imply that Stalder is criticising only the unauthorised (re)use of entertainment content when in fact Stalder is raising rather more broad questions about the ability of centralised systems (broadcasters, governments, pharmaceutical companies, etc) to control the social web.

That said, I don't believe that Shirky avoids the copyright debate deliberately. Rather, it is a testament to HCE's quality as a *business book* that has perhaps helped shape the route down which its narrative travels.

With this in mind, Stalder has perhaps opened another route down which the narrative can travel. Now all we need is for someone to explore that route and perhaps turn it into a bestseller.

*UPDATED* Since posting this I've discovered that Doc Searls has flagged Laurence Lessig's Saturday column in the Wall Street Journal which calls for urgent changes to US copyright legislation - although copyright isn't a major issue, remember ;-)

Technorati tags: Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody, Felix Strader, Copyright 

 

Something everyone wanted but the music industry

 

Muxtape

 

I posted last week on how the debate on copyright and DRM is missing from many of the conversations we have about howt he social web allows you to do some realy cool stuff.

Well this debate raises its head again with the very sad demise of the social mix tape sharing site Muxtape at the hands of the music industry.

It is particularly sad as the site's creator, Mark Cersosimo, seems to have been making every effort to to resolves as issues the industry may have had with the site.

Jason Kottke posts an excerpt of what appears to be an unsourced interview:

"The first red flag came in August. Up until then all the discussion had been about numbers, but as we closed in on an agreement the talk shifted to things like guaranteed placement and "marketing opportunities." I was denied the possibility of releasing a mobile version of Muxtape. My flexibility was being constricted. I had been worried about Muxtape getting a fair deal, but my biggest concern all along was maintaing the integrity and experience of the site (one of the reasons I wanted to license in the first place). Now it wasn't so simple; I had agreed to a variety of encroachments into Muxtape's financials because I wanted to play ball, but giving up any kind of editorial or creative control was something I had a much harder time swallowing."

The irony is, I actually went out and bought CDs having listened to new artists I discovered via Muxtape. In fact I'd say Muxtape was probably the best music artist marketing tool I have come accross in ages.

Thing is, the music industry is stuck in its old ways of thinking. A very sad story indeed.

As Jason remarks: "Muxtape, as originally conceived, was obviously what everyone but the "music industry" wanted."

Via Kottke

Technorati tags: Muxtape, Jason Kottke, Mark Cersosimo, Copyright

Clay Shirky and The Heart of Darkness - Copyright and Here Comes Everybody

I’ve seen a load of good reviews for Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody published earlier this year and I have to confess I haven’t yet got around to reading it (spare review copy anyone?).

However, by far the best review I’ve read came to my attention this week in the journal Metamute (“culture and politics after the Net”).

The first half of Felix Strader’s review follows the well-worn path trodden by other reviewers. It outlines Shirky’s basic premise and uses a couple of his case studies to illustrate these points.

But it is the second half of the review where Strader really reveals the gaping hole at the heart of the book:

“For a book that claims to analyse a revolution that ‘cannot be contained in the institutional structure of society’. we get extremely little on politics or power. […] This lack of depth is the result of the single most problematic aspect of the book. It focuses almost exclusively on aspects that are entirely uncontroversial.”

Stalder uses this gaping void to explore what he calls the “tension” at the heart of web 2.0. This tension exists between the growing number of decentralized ‘amateurs’ creating and contributing value and content to the network and the spaces in which this creation unfolds which are largely centralized and possess vested interests in maintaining control over the public spaces online.

This has a number of clear implications that Stalder believes Shirky must be aware of but keeps quiet about; perhaps given his role as a consultant to the same companies.

As a result, the book’s one glaring omission is about the battle over copyright and DRM:

“Tussle over copyright? Reading Shirky, you wouldn't know there is one. This is probably the most glaring absence. Number of entries for copyright in the index of the book? Zero! In my view, this is inexcusable because it cuts right to the core of why 'boring technologies' are currently so ‘socially interesting’. File sharing, in particular, demonstrates most clearly the power of ‘organizing without organization’ so radical that, for the moment, nobody knows how to contain it within current institutional structures. Number of entries on P2P or file sharing in the index? Again, zero!”

This omission is a monumental failure on Shirky’s behalf and “an indication”- to Stalder  at least – “of how constrained discourse has become, particularly in the US.” Damningly, Stalder concludes that this narrow view of the power and potential of Web 2.0 is “Self-censorship at work.”

While this makes total sense, I can’t offer a critique as I haven’t read Shirky’s book. Rest assured it’s an issue I want to return to once I have.

Technorati tags: Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody, Felix Strader, Copyright, DRM