[A2k] CATO paper calls for changes in copyright law to recognize and embrace a distributed, decentralized creative cycle

[James Love]

* Copyright law should be adjusted to recognize and embrace a
distributed, decentralized creative cycle and the expanded
marketplace of ideas it promises.

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3D6359

Amateur-to-Amateur: The Rise of a New Creative Culture
by F. Gregory Lastowka and Dan Hunter

F. Gregory Lastowka is an assistant professor of law at Rutgers-
Camden School of Law. Dan Hunter is an assistant professor of legal
studies at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Excutive Summary
It is commonly said that copyright matters because it encourages the
production of socially beneficial, culturally significant expressive
content. Excessive focus on copyright law and policy, however, can
obscure other information practices that also produce beneficial and
useful expression. The functions that make up the creative cycle=97
creation, selection, production, dissemination, promotion, sale, and
use of expressive content=97 have historically been carried out and
controlled by centralized commercial actors. However, all of those
functions are undergoing revolutionary decentralization and
disintermediation.

Different aspects of information technology, notably the digitization
of information, widespread computer ownership, the rise of the
Internet, and the development of social networking software, threaten
both the viability and the desirability of centralized control over
the steps in the creative cycle. Those functions are being performed
increasingly by individuals and disorganized, distributed groups.

This raises questions about copyright as the main regulatory force in
creative information practices. Copyright law assumes a central
control structure that applies less well to the creative content
cycle with each passing year. Copyright law should be adjusted to
recognize and embrace a distributed, decentralized creative cycle and
the expanded marketplace of ideas it promises.

Full Text of Policy Analysis no. 567 (PDF, 1 MB)
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa567.pdf

---------------------------------
James Love, CPTech / www.cptech.org / mailto:james.love@cptech.org /
tel. +1.202.332.2670 / mobile +1.202.361.3040

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