“Ireland is moving towards a ‘fair use’ doctrine”
May 9, 2011
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Law Bytes
Episode 278: Ben Waldman on Gander Social and the Challenges of Building a Sovereign Social Network
byMichael Geist

August 10, 2026
Michael Geist
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Michael Geist on Substack
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Turn! Turn! Turn!
At the heart of this debate is the issue of transfer of economic power and control. The transfer is from the media conglomerates to the technological ones, EMI to Apple, RIAA to Google, and they are not happy about it. Adding insult to injury is the rise of the ‘Nerd’ over the ‘sophisticate’ leading, in some views, to the dissolution of greater creativity and prose over the homogenization by the masses.
In any shift in power there will be some who are disadvantaged and misused and that is unfortunate. It is my hope though that there will arise a new class that is able to embrace both domains and give us the creativity that will both improve our lives while enriching our souls.