On Piracy
I’m increasingly a little stymied by response to the Sopa / Pipa thing. I’ve written my senators and congressman (and, like a hipster, I totally did it before it was cool), and I’ve asked them to not do anything dumb.
The challenge is that the argument from the tech community is “Hey, let us help form a solution.” But, I have yet to see any such solution proposed.
I think we need to go back to the basic assumptions of the argument. Part of the issue is general disregard for creative content as property. No one argues about who owns and should benefit from a carpenter’s work. The transactions are clear cut.
But, there are many people who would say that creative content is not the same thing. Until we figure that out, we probably won’t be able to work out the mechanisms for protection. Or, rather, any mechanism we work out would be circumvented regardless.
It sounds like the “Occupy Whatever” movement–lots of complaints, no solutions.
If they shut down Wikipedia, where will we get all that inaccurate information?