I mentioned the music copyright case out in Minnesota last week, but neglected to follow up when the news broke that the jury ruled against the file-sharer in question. They found Jammie Thompson, a single mother from Brainerd, Minn., guilty of illegally sharing music on Kazaa, and fined her $222,000. She says she's going to appeal the decision. Our own Dean Baker has a good piece on it up on AlterNet:
It's long past time for a little reality check. Copyright dates back to 16th century Venice. It was a mechanism for allowing writers to profit from their work by giving them a state-enforced monopoly. It has continued since that time, with the state-granted monopoly being extended both in scope and duration. Copyrights now cover music, movies, video games, and a wide range of other material. The duration has also been repeatedly extended so that copyrights in the United States now persist for 95 years after the death of the author.
While copyrights do provide an incentive for creative work, they are an extremely inefficient mechanism for this end. It is most efficient when items are sold at their marginal cost. Economists generally get infuriated about the economic distortions that are created when tariffs of 10 percent or 20 percent are placed on items like steel or clothes. In the case of copyrights, material that could otherwise be transferred at zero cost, instead commands prices of $15 for CDs, $30 for movies, and even higher prices for other items, entirely because of the government-granted monopoly. For this reason, the economic distortions created by copyright dwarf the economic damage caused by other forms of trade protection.
He goes on to suggest other ways we can support creative works, outside of copyrights -- like funding from foundations, universities, or public support. The piece raises some interesting ideas about alternatives to a world where everyone lives in fear of the RIAA.
--Kate Sheppard
