Life in the Network

The idea of ownership on the internet is mind boggling as Barlow points out. The root of the problem however comes down to greed. Most of the content on the internet is written with the simple hope that someone will read it. With distributed authorship and Web 2.0 taking over what we read, it is only natural for something such as the Creative Commons license to come about. Anything else would be nearly impossible to manage. And when it comes down to it, most people don't care who is reading or using their work until they discover the ability to make money from it. Very few think about copyright until they already see their work being used elsewhere. It is in my opinion that if you don't know or care enough explicitly say that your work is copyrighted than you really have no right to expect money from it down the line. If you don't see the potential for profit enough to add a simple line of text, chances are no one else does either. If someone comes along later and puts extra work into what you started to make it a money making venture, then you must have missed and opportunity and well.....people miss opportunities every day. Suing someone who happens to see potential that you didn't, even enough to type one sentence, is not a way to make up for lack of ingenuity.

When I started making web sites, I would add to the bottom of each page "©". This was a move to simply protect myself from the consequences of doing nothing. I have never had a client EVER ask me to be sure to preserve their copyrights on content they create but I don't want to find myself in the middle of America's favorite pastime, litigation.

On to the topic of music. The copyright battles going on over recorded music right now are what is really killing the record industry. No matter what stats they flash around or how many subpoenas they hand out claiming to protect the work of the artist, the bottom line remains that they only care about their bottom line. They are alienating both their customers and their talent. The internet is finally making it possible for an artist to get their music heard without having to sell out to a label to pay for CD production and distribution. Artists know that what drives profits is buzz and a fan base. The best way to build both is get music out there for people to hear. I think there are enough decent people in the world who realize that if they want to hear more music they like, the artist needs to get paid. The world is changing and the record companies are in the past. Instead of changing with the times they are clinging to the past in the courtroom.