Yesterday I returned from New York to find that once again my neighborhood teen bad boys had tried to steal our scooter. The thing is equipped with lockable steering and a lockable kickstand, and the battery is still sitting in the house in winter storage, so pretty much all they could do was drag the 200 lbs. bike a few feet into the yard. Still, I am irritated. So today I went to my friendly local hardware store and purchased $43.75 worth of security. The rest is up to fate, I suppose.
The hardware store is a little more than a mile from my house, so I had time to muse on the situation while I walked through a persistent drizzle. (What can I say? All attempts at performing Singing in the Rain for one fell flat.) I thought about our discussion of copyright last week and re-examined if I had misjudged the situation in any way now that theft had come to my own back yard (unfortunately, in the literal sense). For me, it was kind of like watching The 700 Club.
Anyway, when my comparisons were complete, it seemed that I was iTunes-ing the situation (very similar strategy of slowing potential thieves down with locks–though I’ve seen them cut through 1″ steel cable before, so no illusions on its effectiveness given adequate time to work). The difference, of course, was that if they took the scooter, I would not have a scooter. Still, a scooter is a thing I bought. What if it was a thing I had built…from scratch…with my dad (sniff)? Talk about quadruple pissed to the nth degree. I empathized with the music creators who felt they were being robbed blind with no cops in sight.
But I realized that that’s precisely the reason I feel so desperate to get reasonable rules for this new game worked out. I don’t argue that rights and regulations are still valuable in the digital age. It’s the chaos I hate. Right now when people consider how they can correctly use materials in their own work, they’re likely to feel wrapped in a bunch of heavy Marley-style chain link while the content is just sitting there in the open field, innocent as a babe. For anyone who wants to do things right, they’ll struggle mightily to do anything at all. All this at a time when almost any conversation about recorded digital media is how to monetize it!
By the time I got back to the house, I didn’t have any new answers, but pushing the conversation felt even more critical. Carrying around all that metal was exhausting, and I’d like to be able to expend my energies on building something new rather than protecting something old.
But but but…
Imagine if you had built a scooter from scratch with your Dad, and it was the awesomest scooter ever. Then imagine that as many other people were able to magically have a copy of that scooter, without impairing your ability to use your own scooter at all. Would you really want to keep them from being able to do that? Wouldn’t you be thrilled to know that so many other people were able to share in the joy of riding that scooter?
I’m no longer ready to declare that all intellectual and digital property should be freely available (as I once did), but I think it’s not particularly helpful to start from analogies to physical property.
Also, I’d encourage you not to hate the chaos that these confusing times bring. We are playing in a garden with incredibly fertile soil and lots of great weather, and some people’s weeds are other people’s wildflowers.
Molly says: Good points, good points. Yeah, I get that the physical analogy ultimately fails, but since I’m usually accused of falling way too far on the copyleft side of things, I was just trying it on. The chaos, though, yes, it can be magical, but it’s also becoming really, really frustrating as the years whip by. So I’m still going to be annoyed by it some, but I’m glad it’s making like a garden for ya.
Others may consider you a “copyleftist,” but I frankly don’t see how any thoughtful person can defend copyright laws as they currently exist. I was surprised when you said earlier that an audience of publishing-industry insiders actually “boo”ed Lessig when his name was mentioned. This type of reaction (and the reaction of labeling someone a “leftist” for taking a sensible, practical position on an issue) speaks volumes about how enslaved to corporate culture the mainstream publishing- and rights-industries have become.
I don’t know, if I built the awesomest scooter ever, I think I’d be inclined to keep the usage of that bad boy to myself, and maybe my dad if he helped out. And maybe I’d let my close friends ride it. But seriously, if you want to ride my awesome scooter and I don’t know you, and especially if you’re going to build it and maybe find a way to – I know, crazy-talk here – sell it to someone else? After I’ve dropped a pile of money and time and energy, and then gone back to the drawing board several times, into it? And then dropped more money and time into it? That’s going to cost you some money.