Friday Rant - Simple Red
at 8:26am
on Friday, 24th November 2006
I haven't ranted for a while so here goes...
Mick Hucknall, in what I can only describe as the most perplexingly misguided and confused piece of writing I have ever seen, argued yesterday in the Guardian that copyright is fundamentally socialist, and implored 'real' Labour supporters who 'really' believe in Labour values to support the extension of copyright beyond the current 50 years.
The piece is beyond nonsense. Others have already taken apart the article - highlights perhaps being Andrew Brown's 'If you don't owe me by now' , and Charlie Leadbeater's 'Too tight to mention' both at Comment is Free, and 'How to Spot nonsense' over at New Music Strategies. The commenters at Comment is Free had many exciting contributions to make, too - OzVoter, for instance, who 'fail(s) to see what possible contribution your article has made to this debate'.
He manages to pick an industry in which every effort has been made by an army of lawyers on the payroll of Hucknell's corporate world to disrupt and pacify the democratic potential of new technologies for the ends of archaic economic forces as an example of where 'copyright's democratising effect can be seen most.' If that's true then anti- and limited-copyright activists can rejoice and go home to mash-up Whitney Houston songs and Scarface clips with impunity, for the guardians of copyright have tangibly lost the argument.
Unintentional satire is the greatest achievement of the piece - suggesting that socialist democracy involves safeguarding the incomes of massive entertainment corporations and their absurdly wealthy 'rock' stars who are on their way to blowing their cash on girls and champagne in Monaco - I'm not blaming them - before they hit retirement age. I'm struggling to see past self-interest, and socialism that doesn't make.
About the most generous reading I can give is that he confuses the ideal of supporting grassroots creativity through copyright - still contentious - with the machinations of an undemocratic industry that controls vast amounts of our shared cultural heritage.
For more on copyright extension stuff by people who have something to say that is worth hearing, try ippr's recent report 'Public Innovation: Intellectual Property in a Digital Age', or the Open Rights Group's 'Release the Music' site.
Rant over.
I haven't ranted for a while so here goes...
Mick Hucknall, in what I can only describe as the most perplexingly misguided and confused piece of writing I have ever seen, argued yesterday in the Guardian that copyright is fundamentally socialist, and implored 'real' Labour supporters who 'really' believe in Labour values to support the extension of copyright beyond the current 50 years.
The piece is beyond nonsense. Others have already taken apart the article - highlights perhaps being Andrew Brown's 'If you don't owe me by now' , and Charlie Leadbeater's 'Too tight to mention' both at Comment is Free, and 'How to Spot nonsense' over at New Music Strategies. The commenters at Comment is Free had many exciting contributions to make, too - OzVoter, for instance, who 'fail(s) to see what possible contribution your article has made to this debate'.
He manages to pick an industry in which every effort has been made by an army of lawyers on the payroll of Hucknell's corporate world to disrupt and pacify the democratic potential of new technologies for the ends of archaic economic forces as an example of where 'copyright's democratising effect can be seen most.' If that's true then anti- and limited-copyright activists can rejoice and go home to mash-up Whitney Houston songs and Scarface clips with impunity, for the guardians of copyright have tangibly lost the argument.
Unintentional satire is the greatest achievement of the piece - suggesting that socialist democracy involves safeguarding the incomes of massive entertainment corporations and their absurdly wealthy 'rock' stars who are on their way to blowing their cash on girls and champagne in Monaco - I'm not blaming them - before they hit retirement age. I'm struggling to see past self-interest, and socialism that doesn't make.
About the most generous reading I can give is that he confuses the ideal of supporting grassroots creativity through copyright - still contentious - with the machinations of an undemocratic industry that controls vast amounts of our shared cultural heritage.
For more on copyright extension stuff by people who have something to say that is worth hearing, try ippr's recent report 'Public Innovation: Intellectual Property in a Digital Age', or the Open Rights Group's 'Release the Music' site.
Rant over.
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