ARTS & FARCES internet

Dave Winer, in his latest DaveNet essay, has nailed Michael Eisner’s “Abraham Lincoln and the internet pirates” editorial earlier this week in the Financial Times.

The possibility of a political smokescreen has been on my radar since Doc Searls quoted something Mitch Kapor said at PC Forum that raised a red flag for me:

“I don’t think these guys want the Hollings legislation to pass. I think they want to cut a deal. In classic fashion, they raise a big threat. A friendly committee and a legislator with a reputation to say outrageous things. To force the players to come to the table to cut a deal that would, in my opinion, screw consumers. It is the protection of buisiness models that is driving things. Lost in that agenda is what consumers (and other players) can actually do. EFF, in spite of many good things it has done, has not been successful at this. It has been successful at fighting in courts, but not at political influence.”

So, what if the entertainment industry doesn’t really want the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA) to pass? What if it’s all like Kapor says, a feint to seal a deal?

As far as I’m concerned, the die has been cast. The motivations and desires of the entertainment industry—legitimate or not—are clear. The time for meaningful intellectual propety law reform and solidification of consumer rights with regard to it is now.

Jim Hightower is at it again. This time he’s determined to put the party back in politics by taking his freewheeling populism on the road. The Rolling Thunder Down-home Democracy Tour kicked off last Saturday in Austin, Texas, drawing about 6,000 people. Speakers at the Austin event included Michael Moore, Molly Ivins, and Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Illinois).

Traditionally, a Chatauqua is a place where people come together during the summer months for entertainment, discussion, and education. From the late 1800’s through the turn of the last century, the Chautauqua movement grew to more than 20 Chautauqua companies and more than 90 circuits, drawing 35 million participants each year.

In “When elephants dance” I provided an analysis of the political contribution funding behind the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA) in the United States Senate.

In order for a bill to become law, companion legislation must be introduced in the House of Representatives, the two bills have to be reconciled, and the President has to sign the final bill into law. And installed President Bush just may be the fly in this particular ointment. Like most conservatives, he sees the entertainment industry as a liberal bastion, remember, and a political force that’s not necessarily aligned with his larger agenda.

As yet there is no companion bill in the House, but we can play a nifty game of Politico Bingo to ascertain who the most likely suspects for authoring it are. All we have to do is follow the money. Which politicians did the entertainment industry throw the most money at during the last few election cycles?

The most likely suspect, based on the 2002 election cycle so far, is clearly Howard Berman (D-California). But the entertainment industry hedged its bet by throwing a good bit of money at Louis Capps (D-California), Jane Harman (D-California), Adam Schiff (D-California), and two non-Californians with big name recognition: Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts) and Richard Gephardt (D-Missouri).

Proving yet again that our readers are much smarter than we are, here are some great riffs on “When elephants dance.”

• The Shifted Librarian
• John Robb
• Jerry Kindall
• Glenn Fleishman
• Tom Matrullo
• Follow Me Here
• More Like This
• Masukomi
• Archipelago
• Ecademy
• The Head Lemur (scroll down to the 4th item)
• Slashdot

Missing any? Let me know.

[Ed. note: Minor clarification changes have been made to this article since it was published in its original form. For complete details, see the revision history section at the bottom of the document.]

When elephants dance, it’s best to get out of the way. That’s exactly what’s happening now as the entertainment industry—the recording, publishing, and motion picture industries, mainly—attempts a worldwide intellectual property power grab with two distinct targets. Think of it: a coup and a lock on all published content in the same year, amazing isn’t it?

Target number 1 is the average customer: anyone who purchases software, an audio CD, an electronic book, or a movie on DVD. The entertainment industry sees customers as pirates, plain and simple. In their collective mind’s eye, we all have a wooden leg, eye patch, and a filthy talking parrot on our shoulder. While the Copyright Act of 1790, Title 17, Chapter 1 of the U.S. Code, and subsequent judicial rulings grant customers certain rights with regard to copyrighted material, the entertainment industry very much wants to separate us from those rights.

Target number 2 in the sights of the entertainment industry are technology behemoths like Microsoft, Intel, IBM, and Apple. These companies, in the perverse worldview of the entertainment industry, make the tools—computers mostly—that allow customers to practice their piracy.

Let me point out that I am a copyright owner, as is everyone else who has ever created a work in tangible form. That’s all authors, for short. Authors are almost never members of the entertainment industry club. The entertainment industry hates authors almost as much as they hate customers. Sometimes, especially when authors get uppity, the entertainment industry hates authors much more than customers. Until recently, authors have always been seen to be at least a marginal threat while customers were seen as merely necessary annoyances.