SIIA Executive Summit: Does Control lead to Chaos?

(by guest blogger John Blossom, President, Shore Communications Inc.) Brewster Kahle, Director and Co-Founder of the Internet Archive, had the unenviable task of reminding premium content executives that excessive control of intellectual property may be leading to its demise. Brewster looks at this through the lens of someone who collects terabytes of data on a regular basis in the most comprehensive source of historical online content and who also helps to build the 21st century Library of Alexandria. Time tells the tale of true success, and the long-term track record seems to show that excessive lockdowns of intellectual property tend to stifle innovation that leads to a healthy marketplace. Brewster reflected on many of the software industry’s utter failures in trying to control copying of software until they finally settled on predominant site licensing to put the issue to bed, and then posed the key question on DRM to content execs: “Why does the software industry think that they can make it work for the information industry when it didn’t work for them?” To a certain degree Brewster was preaching to the choir, as many premium content aggregators and value-add providers decided long ago that site licensing and other forms of non-specific usage valuation could manage electronic content effectively. But as more forms of content are delivered as digital objects with more direct ties to their creators for compensation, this stance may change. The music and movie industries may have learned late in the game how electronic delivery would impact their business models, but enabling institutions and individuals to realise content value effectively in opportunistic markets remains the core mission of all content providers. To the extent that copyright protection enables that goal, may all say “huzzah.”

This coverage is sponsored by HighBeam Research.

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