Copyright falling into the generation gap
On Thursday, David Pogue wrote about The Generational Divide in Copyright Morality. This was picked up by my fellow copyright bloggers:
- The Op-Ed Editor on the Creators’ Copyright Coalition blog
- Russell McOrmond - The Generational Divide in copyright morality or creativity experience?
- John Degen - Kids these days
Russell argues that people are using file sharing because they are revolting against DRM. Although I think that some of them are, I think most of them just don’t feel they should be paying for music. In blog comments and social networking sites, the many kids these days are trying to rationalize their p2p activities not with DRM, but with the fact that they feel music is overpriced. Even on Fair Copyright for Canada, the Facebook group created by Michael Geist, I’m often distressed by the disgruntle music fan advocating against copyright because the money is going to The Man and The Man is charging too much.
As one of the younger copyright bloggers out there, I can tell you that when I was a frosh living on campus seven (eight? I’m losing track of time…) years ago, Napster, iMesh and sister applications were the buzz for music sharing. It wasn’t a matter of DRM, nor was it a matter of “discovering” music. It was a question of why someone would buy music if they could get it for free online. Granted, stores like iTunes and Puretracks weren’t around at that time for people to legally acquire music in digital formats, but mp3 players were horribly chunky and the mp3 format was only starting to take flight.
The impact of DRM on consumer choice is a real issue, and I’m concerned about it. But I’m more concerned about the fact that people are increasingly seeing creative works as being in the public domain as soon as it’s published.
Tags: copyright, music, youthRelated posts
By Julianna Yau
On December 22, 2007
At 5:32 pm
Comments : 4
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