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CHAPTER TWELVE: Harms
To fight “piracy,” to protect “property,” the content industry has
launched a war. Lobbying and lots of campaign contributions have
now brought the government into this war. As with any war, this one
will have both direct and collateral damage. As with any war of prohibition,
these damages will be suffered most by our own people.
My aim so far has been to describe the consequences of this war, in
particular, the consequences for “free culture.” But my aim now is to extend
this description of consequences into an argument. Is this war justified?
In my view, it is not. There is no good reason why this time, for the
first time, the law should defend the old against the new, just when the
power of the property called “intellectual property” is at its greatest in
our history.
Yet “common sense” does not see it this way. Common sense is still
on the side of the Causbys and the content industry. The extreme
claims of control in the name of property still resonate; the uncritical
rejection of “piracy” still has play.
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