The world has changed. Get over it. I think people still
immersed in the old business models see their infrastructure crumbling but
can't see how the new possibilities might be even better-- as Apple clearly
did with the iPod.
I hope Viacom has their wish: Youtube will delete all their videos-- that's
their policy if they receive a complaint. Then Viacom will pay millions of
dollars to show clips in ads on regular TV. Duh!
The "principle" of copyright is indeed in trouble. The trouble is that
people don't really understand the original purpose of copyright. The
trouble is also that people have this illusion that Walt Disney's "The
Little Mermaid", for example, is "original" (Disney stole it or bought it, along with
"The Lion King" Pinochio, Aladdin, and most of everything else they produce). Most rock'n'roll
is derived from long established models of chord progressions and riffs.
Art steals from landscapes or objects (Warhol's Campbell Soup can is only
the most obvious example). Ever
see a TV episode in which one major character seems to have forgotten
another major character's birthday? Lucy? Mr. Ed? Gilligan? Edith?
Maude? Homer?
The sad truth is that most of the current big corporations fighting for
stricter copyright enforcement could not themselves have been profitable
without outright theft. (Exactly how many "reality" tv shows are there, by
the way? Hey, I got an idea: we get a bunch of people on a show, have them
do something, then kick one of them off every episode!...)
We have simply entered an era in which definitions of "original" and "copy"
and "collage" and "edited" and "found" are rapidly changing. We'll survive.
We've never had as much money to spend on diversions as we do now, and the
money is madly flowing in all directions. The groaning and creaking we are
hearing is the sound of decrepit old business models struggling to re-orient
themselves to the new realities. The nimbler minds at Google, and Apple,
and Youtube, and Myspace, etc. have already found their way. The older
models are not only inefficient -- they're boring.
It would be very, very bad policy for the government to try to artificially
prop up those old monsters, the way some governments and unions used to try
to require stokers on diesel trains. The DMCA was a clumsy attempt to do
just that and I hope it dies slowly, the death of a thousand Youtubes.