• Home
  • About
    • diacritical
    • Douglas McLennan
    • Contact
  • Other AJBlogs
  • ArtsJournal

diacritical

Douglas McLennan's blog

Will Technology Make Our Intellectual Property Laws Obsolete?

June 22, 2009 by Douglas McLennan 2 Comments

Interesting take on the future of copyright and patent law by Eric Reasons:

Every business model relying on intellectual property law (patent and
copyright) is heading for massive deflation in our lifetimes. We’ve
seen it with the music industry and newspapers already. The software
industry is starting to feel it with the maturity of open source
software, and the migration of applications to the cloud. Television,
movies, and books are next. I’ve come to question the ability of copyright and patent law to foster innovation,
but leaving that aside, the willingness of people to collaborate and
share, and the tools provided for it on the internet, may render these
laws obsolete.

And that means:

Journalists, auto workers, record industry players, retail sales
clerks, and marketing staff are forced to go looking for work in
shrinking markets. These businesses are either suffering from old
business models based on increasingly artificial scarcity (newspapers,
music, marketing, software development), or are able to do more work
with the fewer resources due to the newly created efficiency
(retailers). In short, businesses relying on artificial scarcity
created by intellectual property law, are businesses most susceptible
to deflation.

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Comments

  1. ann martin says

    June 22, 2009 at 12:47 am

    Add photographers to your list.

    Reply
  2. umbrarchist says

    August 8, 2009 at 3:38 am

    Technology is changing the distribution of knowledge and information. A large percentage of the information is BS. We are confusing the children with so much BS and most adults haven't sorted it out.
    Why talk about patents and not planned obsolescence? How much have Americans lost on the depreciation of automobiles since the Moon landing? Why have kids read Catcher in the Rye and not know 700 year old double-entry accounting? Who cares if there is a copyright on Catcher in the Rye?
    http://www.quantumcritics.com/20070704123/busines…

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Douglas McLennan

I’m the founder and editor of ArtsJournal, which was founded in September 1999 and aggregates arts and culture news from all over the internet. The site is also home to some 60 arts bloggers. I’m a … [Read More...]

About diacritical

Our culture is undergoing profound changes. Our expectations for what culture can (or should) do for us are changing. Relationships between those who make and distribute culture and those who consume it are changing. And our definitions of what artists are, how they work, and how we access them and their work are changing. So... [Read more]

Subscribe to Diacritical by Email

Receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 3,823 other subscribers
Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on RSSFollow Us on E-mail

Archives

@AJDoug

Tweets by @AJDoug

Recent Comments

  • Douglas McLennan on Inflection Point? A Crisis in Paying for Culture in the Age of Abundance: “True – but the Swiftie phenomenon demonstrates how deeply people want to engage and that they’re willing to pay dearly…” Jul 24, 21:25
  • Tom Corddry on Inflection Point? A Crisis in Paying for Culture in the Age of Abundance: “An additional data point: Taylor Swift drew 144,000+ to her two Seattle concerts, at an average ticket price of $123.…” Jul 24, 15:34
  • Steven Lavine on Inflection Point? A Crisis in Paying for Culture in the Age of Abundance: “Terrific account. Like so many of our social media Augmented crises, it’s hard to see a way forward.” Jul 24, 13:52
  • Howard Mandel on Inflection Point? A Crisis in Paying for Culture in the Age of Abundance: “At least it’s clear the “ long-tail” argument was a canard.” Jul 24, 06:10
  • Sam Hodak on Too Many Artists Or Not Enough Value?: “So what you’re telling me is… make a VR experience” May 12, 00:03
  • Mark on What If Disruption Was Just A Tech Con Game?: “Thank you” Mar 19, 13:15
  • Douglas McLennan on Still Amusing Ourselves to Death: Information as Cautionary Tale: “Hi John: Yes – remember over the last decade how Big Data was going to change everything and drive every…” Nov 26, 07:46
  • John McCann on Still Amusing Ourselves to Death: Information as Cautionary Tale: “I haven’t read this book, yet your review triggered an insight about information shared within organizations and how so much…” Nov 26, 03:57
  • Richard Voorhaar on The UnderTow: The High-flying Oil Industry fears “Demand Destruction.” Should the Arts?: “We have reached the point where the average American has no attention span. A 3-4 minute pop tune is all…” Jun 10, 11:22
  • Alan Harrison on The UnderTow: The High-flying Oil Industry fears “Demand Destruction.” Should the Arts?: “Brilliant piece, Doug. It’s why, in my own columns on LinkedIn and Medium, I may have become more strident recently…” Jun 8, 15:46

Top Posts

  • Inflection Point? A Crisis in Paying for Culture in the Age of Abundance
  • If Dance Can't Pay Its Dancers What Does It Mean To Be A Professional Dancer?
  • The UnderTow: Subscriptions are the New Business Model of Choice. So Why are Subscriptions Failing in the Arts?
  • More Valuable - The Ticket Buyer Or The Donor?
  • The Bigger Picture: Making Sense Of This Week's Trending ArtsJournal Stories

Recent Posts

  • Inflection Point? A Crisis in Paying for Culture in the Age of Abundance July 23, 2023
  • Still Amusing Ourselves to Death: Information as Cautionary Tale November 25, 2022
  • The UnderTow: What the new Edinburgh Fringe Tells us about a Post-COVID World June 26, 2022
  • The UnderTow: The High-flying Oil Industry fears “Demand Destruction.” Should the Arts? June 7, 2022
  • The UnderTow: Subscriptions are the New Business Model of Choice. So Why are Subscriptions Failing in the Arts? May 23, 2022
June 2009
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930  
« May   Jul »

An ArtsJournal Blog

Recent Posts

  • Inflection Point? A Crisis in Paying for Culture in the Age of Abundance
  • Still Amusing Ourselves to Death: Information as Cautionary Tale
  • The UnderTow: What the new Edinburgh Fringe Tells us about a Post-COVID World
  • The UnderTow: The High-flying Oil Industry fears “Demand Destruction.” Should the Arts?
  • The UnderTow: Subscriptions are the New Business Model of Choice. So Why are Subscriptions Failing in the Arts?

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in