Even tougher copyright law. A meddlesome income-based pricing system for media access. Word that half of a typical documentary film budget probably goes already toward “rights” clearance. Clashes among certain open-content-style approaches. Yikes! It’s all among the stuff that Ben Vershbow of if:book heard from various speakers at a media conference at MIT on open content and alternatives.
How much is or will be on the mark? I can believe the move toward harsher copyright law–in the near term and maybe even the long one. When are wired activists going to stop cutting politicians so much slack and say: “Enough! If you want my full support next time around, you need to speak out now against copyright term extension and other atrocities–and fight new ones.” You bet I’m gonna stick in a Technorati tag for John Edwards via his WordPress category in the TeleBlog. He’s a perfect example of the problem–a “progressive” who so far has totally wimped out on issues such as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. Look for more attacks on the public domain and for longer terms, not shorter terms, if activists campaign for Podcaster John and the like while brooking their cowardice on copyright matters.
Related: A much-better side of Edwards–his laudable campaign to encourage the Washington to focus more on tax collection from the super rich and stop an unfair campaign against low-income taxpeyers. Why isn’t he speaking out in the same way against Draconian copyright law? Or. in John Edwards’ America, is the government to set income-based pricing schedules for overpriced copyrighted material from his Hollywood contributors–caring more about the studios’ bottom lines than about the commonweal?
