In the past, creation of content equaled ownership. If I build a house, I own it. If I record a song, I owned it. If I wrote an article…well, you get the picture. Due to the natural limitations of geography, it was easy to craft a set of laws that easily protected these ownership rights. It used to be difficult to “steal” music. It used to be difficult to steal articles and publish them. In the not so distant past, very few people had the ability to publish content.

But now the world is flat. So what do we do? Well we know what the music industry is doing. They’re suing their most energetic customers. It’s a textbook way to destroy a once thriving industry. Instead of suing customers, new age lawyers need to find ways to accommodate the needs of a well connected society with the demands of content creators. Really, nothing has changed. In the past, we could just as easily hand out cassette tapes to friends as we can put a file in a folder and share it with peers. Today, I can go buy a donut. I assume I own that donut. I can choose to eat it or I can choose to give it away. With music, and all other forms of digital media, the problem is that it’s too darn easy to share stuff. In the past, geography was their best friend. Today, it doesn’t exist.

A friend of my father’s is in the DVD manufacturing business. Seeing the writing on the wall, he’s been selling off his interests and purchasing something that’s easy to own, easy to protect, impossible to outsource. He’s buying beer businesses. Beer can only be consumed once. Instead of suing customers, the artists and content creators alike need to create ways to add value to people’s lives beyond their creations. It’s useless to fight it.

Tags: copyright, property