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So here’s the picture: You’re standing at the side of the road. Your
car is on fire. You are angry and upset because in part you helped start
the fire. Now you don’t know how to put it out. Next to you is a bucket,
filled with gasoline. Obviously, gasoline won’t put the fire out.
As you ponder the mess, someone else comes along. In a panic, she
grabs the bucket. Before you have a chance to tell her to stop—or before
she understands just why she should stop—the bucket is in the air.
The gasoline is about to hit the blazing car. And the fire that gasoline
will ignite is about to ignite everything around.
A war about copyright rages all around—and we’re all focusing on the
wrong thing. No doubt, current technologies threaten existing businesses.
No doubt they may threaten artists. But technologies change.
The industry and technologists have plenty of ways to use technology
to protect themselves against the current threats of the Internet. This
is a fire that if let alone would burn itself out.
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