Background

• This is very preliminary. Listing all the problems with current copyright law, its implication and history is the subject of entire books. However, one can remind oneself what the purpose of copyright is.

• The purpose of Copyright is not to ensure that artist and writers are paid, it is not to make sure noone builds upon existing content without the copyright owners permission, it is not to ensure the survival of Hollywood

• The government shall stimulate the growth of our culture, our creativity and innovation. That is the core. One such means of realising this is by making sure content creators are rewarded. The patent law is for some reason more attuned to this goal than copyright law.

• As a culture changes, so must the law. What was true 200 years ago is not true today, and we must revisit the deal in its entirety. One must look at the law, considering the impact of the global village, free distribution, miniturization and other new technologies

• RIAA gets paid when non-members music is played

– http://gundampilotspaz.com/2007/04/29/riaa-to-collect-money-for-independant-non-riaa-artists/

• RIAA sued 11 year old for piracy

– http://tinymixtapes.com/RIAA-Faces-Major-Setbacks-Because

What is media?

• What differentiates a painting from a pair of jeans?

• One can think of movies, music, comics, radio, books in two main categories:

- A Commodity

- A form of expression

• These two categories bring with them entirely different aspects and should be interpreted differently.

The big picture

The main objective of a society in a cultural context is

• …while maintaining Free speech

• …while maintaining Privacy

• …while maintaining Free communication

• Society should also enable access to history

– Those that dont learn from history…

• Culture is also the bond that forms communities

To stimulate culture, creativity and innovation

Assumption

• The prevalent assumption the last 200 years has been that culture is best stimulated by offering a temporary protection to the creator, so he can control the use and distribution of content

• This has never been proved, but is rarely questioned

• There is considerable evidence that Commercial Copyright on many instances causes more harm than benefit

• One must ask: Does the current copyright legislation and practice fulfill its purpose, of stimulating culture creativity and innovation to the greatest extent?

Cases where law contradicts purpose

• Aids vaccine not being available in Africa, causing deaths of millions

• Patenting biological DNA – even human!

• Exxon buying battery patents to prevent electric cars from being developed

• Criminalising everyone between the age of 5 and 50

• Granting police powers to the RIAA to sue individuals

• Massive surveilance of private communication

• Preventing reuse of culture the way its been done for milennia

Media as a commodity

The vendor

• Highest number of units

• Highest possible price

• Lowest cost

• Control the market

– From other players

– From disruptive technologies and business models

• Control the content

– Get access to content from others

– Deny access to content to others

• Associated revenue

– Merchandising, Product placement, Cross subsidies (McD campaigns)

The customer

• Highest content quality

• Highest content selection

• Highest distribution quality

• Highest distribution selection

• Lowest price

• Maintained consumer rights

Media as art

Artist

• Distribution– From only family to the whole world

• Recognition– From anonymous to pseudonym to

attention hogger

• Content control– From copyright to copyleft

• Feedback– From concerts to fanclubs

• Artistic freedom– Free speech

• Monetary compensation– From none to lots

Participant

• Embodiment

– From whatever to roadie

• Patronage

– From none to everything

• Influence

– Incluence creators, reward, feedback etc

• Share with peers

– Part of identity

• Use and reuse content

– Create and modify, sample

“..I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.”

Other sources of damage

Conventional distribution model

Content owner

User

Distributor

Content ownerContent owner

User User

Example: Apple

Content owner

User

Content ownerContent owner

User User

iPod

iTunes

iPhone Apple TV

Example: Nokia

Content owner

User

Content ownerContent owner

User User

N96

OVI

N95 N…

Some problems with current distribution model

• Exclusive rights Combines copyright owners and distributors

– The distributor has monopoly on distribution of content

– Reduces competition both in distribution and in content

• Copyright owner has monopoly on derivative works

– Severe impediment to free speech

• "Eternal" copyright contributes little to public domain

– Public domain content cannot compete with copyrighted content

• The law criminalizes the majority

– The law protects the content owners on the expense of the people. Bans people from internet, restricting internet speeds, suing technology vendors (vcr, mp3) and regular people

– Is the problem with the people, or with the law?

How to effect change

• The idea of the model is to disrupt existing distribution models,

• The idea is to make free culture more competitive than permission culture (ref. Lawrence Lessig, ”Free Culture”) and thus marginalize permission culture

• Introduce competition in all links of the value chain

• Create a solid, fundamentally correct and future-proof system that adresses the requirements and needs of all relevant parties

Steam as an example

• Focus on the user experience

• Gives the user high degree of functionality and rights

• Appealing to 3rd party vendors

• Stimulates development on their products

Content owner

User

Content ownerContent owner

User User

Aggregator

Distributør Distributør

Aggregator

Roles separated to get non-exclusivity

Content owner

User

Content ownerContent owner

User User

Aggregator

Distributor Distributor

Aggregator

Needs an independent registry

Registry

Writer

User

Public Library Registry

MusicianPainter

User User

Internet Archive

FreeArt.com MSN music store

Registration Co.

Example roles

John Walsh

Peter: Reads the book for free on his PC

Public Library Registry

Walter: Buys the paperback

FreeBooks.com HardPop

Writers Guild

Eksempel of use

$ 5

$ 20free

John’s chosen licence sais digital copies are free, if you publish a paper book give me 5 bucks

Content ownerOwner of the content. Can be an individual or company

Content registrar

Facilitates access to Content registry

User registryPublic registry of which users owns which content

Application

UserConsumes the content

Application

DistributorDistributes content

Content registryPublic registry of Content

Process flows

• The public registry approves registrars and distributors

– Can be any company, but must abide by the rules regarding copyright, payment etc

Registrar and Distributor signing

Content owner

User registry

Application

User

Distributor

Content registrar

Application

Content registry

• Content is produced

– Music, movies, TV-series, photos, books, plays etc

– Initially intended for media content, but works equally well for games, applications and other intellectual property

• Licence decicions

– Content producer can make any kind of 3rd party agreement, including sale or revenue-sharing of licenses

Content production and licencing

Content owner

Content registrar

User registry

Application

User

Application

Distributor

Content registry

• Content owner registers with the public registry

– Done through approved registrars, much like domain names

– Content owner provides a copy to the Content registrar of the highest quality available

Content registration

Content owner

Content registrar

User registry

Application

User

Application

Distributor

Content registry

• Distributor accesses registry

– Finds new content in the content registry the distributor wishes to publish

• Retrieves a master copy

– can then create any new suitable version - from FLAC to MP3, from Blue-ray to DVD, DivX, mobile etc

Registrar to distributor publication

Content owner

User registry

Application

User

Distributor

Content registrar

Application

Content registry

• The user purchases content

– Can be a CD store, iTunes etc

– The user can decide either to purchase anonymously, or to register that he now owns the rights to that content

– Registration can be facilitated in a number of ways, eg. By registering a credit card with the distributor

Content purchase

Content owner

Content registrar

User registry

Application

User

Application

Distributor

Content registry

• The distributor pays for the licence

– The distributor checks content registry for price, and pays the content owner according to the licence.

– Can be any kind of payment plan determined by the chosen licence, from fixed price per unit to bulk discounts. Note that this is a fixed part of the licence agreements and is available to all distributors alike.

Content owner payment

User registry

Application

User

Application

Distributor

Content owner

Content registrar

Content registry

• Content is distributed

– The distributor checks the user registry to see what content that user has purchased

– Content can be distributed in a myriad of payment plans and distribution methods… Physical media, streaming, Pay-on demand, torrents, fixed price, bundles etc

Content distribution

Content owner

Content registrar

User registry

Application

User

Application

Distributor

Content registry

Categories of licences

• Public Domain

– Content without any kind of restrictions

• Creative Commons licence group

– Content that is free for non-commercial use

– Includes licences such as Creative Commons and Creative Archive

• Commercial Commons licence group

– A group of licences where distribution requires payment

– Licences can be as detailed as one please

– Example: Books – a licence that a digital copy of the book has one cost (eg. Free), a physical print has another (eg. $5 per sold copy)

And now?

• Lets do this!