John Degen's Globe and Mail essay declares that there is no copyright crisis. Degen is the head of the Professional Writers Association of Canada.
Who Needs Copyright, Anyway?
4 Comments
Recent Posts
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 231: Sara Bannerman on How Canadian Political Parties Maximize Voter Data Collection and Minimize Privacy Safeguards 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 230: Aengus Bridgman on the 2025 Federal Election, Social Media Platforms, and Misinformation 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 229: My Digital Access Day Keynote – Assessing the Canadian Digital Policy Record 
Queen’s University Trustees Reject Divestment Efforts Emphasizing the Importance of Institutional Neutrality 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 228: Kumanan Wilson on Why Canadian Health Data Requires Stronger Privacy Protection in the Trump Era
It’s not about getting material for free. If that were true, iTunes should not exist in the face of free competition. It’s not about abolishing or fighting copyright.
It’s about content providers embracing new business models instead of embracing new technologies that reduce the value of content for the consumer. It’s about treating your customers right. It’s about adding more value to content.
Despite his flawed diatribe, Degen concedes and ends up doing what “copyright fighters” like yourself, Ingram and TechDirt have been saying for years: change your business model. Unfortunately, I don’t think that Degen sees it that way.
He may not believe that’s what he’s doing…
Remember what copyright is for
The problem is governments, companies and individuals forget about what copyright is all about. In its most basic form, its simply about maximizing innovation.
If the copyright term is too short, no innovation will take place. A company would not be able to achieve a good enough return on the money invested in performing the research.
On the other hand, if the copyright term is too long, innovation will take place, but it will be significantly under-utilized. Only a single company, the company that performed the research, will get any benefit.
So there needs to be a balance, and government is who has been tasked with finding this balance.
Finding the Balance
Chris I think your right on the money when you say that copyright is a balancing act. The company I’m interning for, iCopyright, believes the same thing. It isn’t acceptable to let someone else’s content be whisked away and profited off by someone else; however also isn’t right for one’s work to stop innovation. iCopyright just came out with its beta version of ©reators which seeks to strike a balance between the creator’s rights, user’s rights, and the greater good.
The ©reators beta site is [ link ]’ target=’_blank’>link ].
Kind Regards,
Tyson O’Donnell
Product Marketing Manager
206-484-8561
Tyson@icopyright.com
[ link ]’ target=’_blank’>link ]