So Sue Me
for release 08-15-05
Washington D.C.
It's no secret that the internet has turned the whole concept of copyright on it's ear. People are copying and pasting and posting and downloading and forwarding copyrighted material every minute of the day. Anybody that can reach the Enter key is a publisher these days. The technology makes this possible, not the law.
Laws are many times sedimentary. They represent a response to situations that existed in the past and many times they stay on the books long beyond their usefulness or applicability. There are still municipalities in Texas that have laws stating that you can't drive an automobile into town unless you have a horse leading with a red flag or a lantern. Even though we no longer live in a world where ladies and horses can be startled by an automobile, some of those laws are still on the books.
Similarly, we no longer live in a world where books are made of paper and records are made of vinyl. Technology has, as usual, trumped tradition and law. Books and recordings and movies used to be physical objects. The publishers were selling you paper and the record companies were selling an object that could be played on a machine and the movie makers were selling a comfortable seat in a theater. But that's not the world we live in today. Now anyone with a broadband connection can access practically anything that has been printed anywhere in the last decade and listen to any song that was recorded in the last half century or see any movie or grab any piece of software for free.
This puts a strain on the folks who have been getting fat by selling you entertainment and enlightenment and how-to books and bubble-gum records and blockbuster movies. It's like what the oil companies would feel like if all of a sudden you could just drive up to a gas pump and fill your tank without paying, or if the supermarkets just removed the checkers and let everyone take whatever they wanted.
There is a saying in the subculture of thieves. "Locks are for honest people." My partner insists on buying all our software. Her son has no compunction about downloading it for free. Regardless of legal niceties, the world has changed. Even the mega record companies and RIAA don't have the resources or the inclination to sue every college kid who downloads an Eminem record.
The technology will evolve further. Wherever there is a highway, somebody will figure out a way to make a toll road out of it. Already the technology exists to pay an artist a nickel per click when someone listens to their music or reads their words or watches their flash movie creation or video. This is a good thing. This means that we can cut out the middle man. Of course the middle man is not going to be too happy about it.
I'm listening to Eva Cassidy right now. My partner, who won't crack a piece of software, had no trouble with the idea of downloading a live version of Eva doing Bridge Over Troubled Waters. She didn't offer to pay Paul Simon or Eva Cassidy's estate for the privilege of listening to it, no, not anymore than she would send them a check if she heard the tune on the radio.
Eva Cassidy never 'made it' during her lifetime. She was dead before she got discovered. It doesn't matter to her. But I love listening to her music. It tears my heart out. Who should I pay? Her record company? I don't think so, not if I can get it for free. I would gladly pay Eva, though.
Now Google is about to digitally transcribe the contents of some of the world's major libraries. That means that every one of us can have access to the collected writings of our civilization. This is a good thing. But Google has put the project on hold because of copyright issues. When are these people going to move into the twenty-first century?
The Poet's Eye has always glanced askance at the notion that you can own an idea.
Right or wrong,
I'm gonna steal your song
So, Sue--ooo-ooo me
Yea or nay the judge will say,
'get out your copyright
we're having fun tonight
who wrote scrambled eggs?'
---lrod, So, Sue Me
click to listen to the mp3
