If a supermarket could order all the transport companies in the world to ban you from travelling anywhere, simply because they SUSPECT you of copying a loaf of bread, would you think that acceptable? Well, if you peer through the smokescreen of moral indignation, obfuscation and downright lies peddled by the media companies, you will realise that that is exactly the power they are demanding. They want you barred from contact with the rest of humanity if they ‘suspect you of listening to music’ without paying them money. And governments are bending over backwards to accommodate these bullies, as we saw recently when a British Minister called Mandelson jetted abroad for a meeting with an American media mogul, then returned home and promptly changed the law to suit the moguls’ demands .
This may be very short-sighted of governments. As one commenter noted of Mandelson’s claimed download figures : “It is not wise to upset 7 million voters”. If the huge illegal download statistics the governments rant about are true, then this observation should give them concern. If they are a lie, deceitfully extrapolated from a media-sponsored survey of 136 people (as this one was!), then the arrogance, the stupidity and the bullying of both the media moguls and their ministerial lackeys are likely to upset many more than just the 7 million dishonestly quoted for the UK. And they will not all be pop-befuddled teenagers. If we elect a government we expect it to take instructions from us, not from greedy, dishonest foreign media bosses.
Ignoring the current ludicrous perversion of the copyright principle, the simple fact we all must face, including unelected ministers and media bosses, is that the world has changed: IT IS NO LONGER POSSIBLE, IN ANY PRACTICAL WAY, TO PREVENT ANYONE COPYING ANYTHING THAT CAN BE DIGITIZED. They may as well try to sue us all for inhaling the air they breathe out on the street (careful John, don’t give them ideas). The distribution middlemen who have, for the past fifty odd years, systematically and cynically ripped off both artists and customers with a brutal greed that the ordinary teenage file-sharer can barely imagine, are now obsolete. And I suspect few will mourn them. Anyone can now make and distribute almost any creation themselves, and everyone else can avail themselves of it. And that, however it may upset the intellectual property owners, is how the world now is.
But if you think this spells doom and gloom for the artist who wants food on his table, think again. The opportunities presented to media creators by this Digital Revolution are simply staggering, as it opens the door to an audience of millions, unfettered by greedy middlemen. All they have to do is develop a fresh business model; and the far-sighted ones are already doing that. Ironically, there is a place in this for middlemen who are blessed with some imagination. I was engaged recently in a discussion on The Self Publishing Review during which it became apparent that authors’ agents who have sufficient flair to see over the fence into the future, can develop strong, mutually beneficial bonds with authors who publish their own work, by providing the usually lacking marketing skill. The same principle must apply to all forms of artistic endeavour. And the artist is now in the driving seat.
A very exciting future beckons for The Arts. But if we want to join it we must accept its terms. Powerful media bosses may be able to dictate to potty little governments, but they cannot dictate to the changing Universe; as Canute so clearly demonstrated, and Ludd and his acolytes always eventually discover to their cost. And if the Luddites find this difficult, wait until the ability of the ordinary person to make and market expands from arts to crafts, as it surely will when nanotechnology develops sufficiently.