The Pirates are Just Rebels?

John Harris makes a curious case in support of Peter Mandelson’s proposals on filesharing:

In the backstory to all this lurk arguments that will not go away: artists, writers and inventors should be paid; the traditional creative industries have their uses; and the great chaotic utopia envisaged by some online evangelists would be culturally impoverished – a world that would create millions of buskers, but no Beatles.

This kind of libertarianism gives off the same whiff as the pro-freedom politics once espoused by acid house party organisers – not just politically empty, but off-puttingly spivvy.

Pirate Party UK leader Andrew Robinson says in response:

The party does not want to abolish copyright but it needs to be balanced and fair, Robinson claims.

“At the moment, big businesses is saying that we steal handbags, and we say let’s talk about what copyright is about,” he says. The original purpose of copyright, created by the Statute of Anne of 1709, was to encourage the creation of artistic works by granting a right to copy for 14 years. Copyright for written works now stands at life plus 70 years, and copyright for sound recordings is 50 years after the recording is made, or 50 years after publication. The EU has extended copyright to 95 years for performers and sound recordings.

The term of copyright has been marching forward but along the way, the purpose of it has been lost, according to Robinson. Instead of encouraging artistic creation, modern copyright has made certain companies cultural gatekeepers, he argues, adding, “copyright is serving the needs of music labels, not the needs of the public, the public domain or even the artists“.

In other words the argument isn’t about whether or not to pay, but who benefits from it. And look at those statistics. Harris is being disingenuous when he uses the term ‘pirates’ pejoratively – the European Pirate parties’ popularity isn’t politically empty and ‘spivvy’. The large number of young people joining them in enormous numbers understand the arguments, and have the technology to do something about it. Politicians like Mandelson should be wary of patronising young voters – they don’t have enough of their own as it is!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.