Modernize the Law to Mirror Culture

The World Has Changed
The Internet has infiltrated every part of Western life – from commerce to friendships, from entertainment to school.

Out With the Old…
Traditional forms of media are suffering – newspapers cannot hold an audience, YouTube holds more sway than the networks and the masses are acting faster and faster.

…In With the New
Those who push the envelope – those who pave their own paths – are reaping the rewards.

Yet,
The firms with less and less importance have a powerful tool – Congress, which too often is oblivious to the changed world, receives millions of dollars from old media.

20^th Century Law
The paradigm shift of the Internet – which, by design, copies content – calls for a rethinking of intellectual property law.

Try the Other Direction, Sir
Continuing to expand copyright’s duration and scope, that is, continuing to progress in the same manner as before the Internet, threatens both the current opportunities and future possibilities afforded by the web.

Ch-ch-ch-changes
The copyright regime must continue to “promote the progress of Science and the useful Arts.” It will not due this in an environment where innovators are C&D’ed, students sued and artists silenced.

Property Formalities
A house needs a deed. A car is registered. Even other intellectual property, trademarks and patents, are approved before obtainment. Monopoly rights are not for everyone – let those who desire copyright register (choosing which rights to reserve); let the rest be free.

Embrace the Internet
Let future artists search a digital repository of all copyrighted works. Build a 21^st Century Library of Alexandria to not only archive the cumulative creativity of our society, but to inform people of the legal status of the works they encounter.

Spirit, not Letter
The “limited Times” for which the Constitution allows intellectual property must align with the intent of our Founding Fathers. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson’s opposition to copyright was well catalogued, yet the minimum term of restriction today is longer than both of their lives. (As for the maximum length, it is greater than their lives combined).

Free to Create
Every innovation draws upon the innovations of the past. Every artist is influenced by another. In a world where distant inventions can be built upon in numerous places, the freedom to create must be preserved.

Free to Profit
In a marketplace which is expanding with the economics of abundance and globalization, the innovations of today have unprecedented economic possibilities, but only if their freedom to create is secured.