COPYCENSE

Another weekly edition of Copycense Clippings, with stories about Led Zeppelin, Radiohead; free radio in the U.S.; limited downloads in Europe; and the Nobel Prize that made the iPod possible.

Quote of the Week

“A sensible copyright system—perhaps similar to the one we had for most of the 20th century—would work just fine for the 21st century. It would ensure artists are fairly compensated while greatly reducing the deadweight losses Baker identifies in the status quo. The reasons these reforms haven’t happened (and indeed, the reason that copyright rules keep getting more and more draconian) is that the copyright industries are one of the most powerful special interest groups on Capitol Hill. This is the old story of concentrated benefits and dispersed costs. There’s no shortage of good reform proposals, there’s just no one with the clout to push any of those reform proposals through Congress.” — Timothy B. Lee, Cato Institute

Cato@Liberty. A Bad Copyright Reform Proposal. Oct. 11, 2007. Lee’s quote is a response to an article by Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic Policy Research and editor of the Beat the Press blog on economic reporting, in which Baker opined that artist subsidies (such as his proposed Artistic Freedom Voucher) are a useful alternative to copyright law run amuck. Unfortunately, Lee does not prescribe any solutions to this problem.

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