Today’s business thinking has finally gone off the rails, with companies so heavily laden with fat corporate suits that their wheels have lost all traction. In a mad scramble to protect industries from change, organisations are about to abuse infant sections of the law. Instead of promoting innovation to move forward, some of the worlds largest and most influential companies are stifling the progress of the world by going to court. Granted I’m not talking about solving starvation or curing cancer. If these were the issues the worlds Governments wouldn’t be so blind to assist (I hope). What I am talking about is digital content (music, movies, news, etc.).
Before we had the Phonograph, music was distributed in real time. Artists would preform for a paying public. Before the Phonograph the world wasn’t ‘blessed’ with massive marketing machines that pumped out plastic pop icons on mass until new fads hit the wire. Before the Phonograph it wasn’t as easy to find a way to listen to music.
Before we had the Television, moving images were distributed live. You had to be there to see the action. If it was sport or entertainment, you probably paid for a ticket, if it was news you happened to be there or hear from a friend. Before the Television we didn’t have mass advertising organisations that brainstormed on how best to exploit sex to sell a can of brown sugar water. Before the Television, images of wars were static on the front of a local newspaper, and a soap opera would have meant an actor sat in a bath on stage.
Before any innovative technology the world was at least a little different. Business would go about its work in completely different ways than it does today. It did not mean that the new technology would mean the end of business, just the way in which it was conducted. Of course there was always the potential that it could mean the demise of companies, we are faced with that every day (see dictionary meaning for Enron), but it also meant that their was a possibility of everyones lives being enriched just a little bit more. Thats what progress is all about. Or have we lost sight of that. It would seem that megalomaniac companies have.
Instead of Theater owners suing Phonograph companies for copyright, or newspaper companies claiming patent infringement by MCI or RCA, the march of progress continued, and the world was blessed with the rich communications that we now have. Sounds outlandish that they would consider such legal action. Why not, both technologies threatened their livelihood as a business.
Why isn’t it bizarre that an innovative company who developed a way to share digital content in an easy way is sued for copyright infringement. Why isn’t it crazy that legal action is threatened when someone links directly to a piece of relevant news on the web instead of only to the sites front page.
Is it because we are so use to “innovative” legal action. Has it become so ridiculous we are now immune to how outrageous it is. Or is it because we are use to how business conducts itself today that
we can’t see that there is the potential for life to be enriched by different ways of doing business in the future.
Looking beyond how business works today to how it will work tomorrow is not easy. If it were we’d be there already. But what me must not do is obstruct our progress made by innovation. Unfortunately this is exactly what we are doing. The battles that rage in the world courts today will dictate what we can and can not do tomorrow.
File swapping technology should be viewed as just that. There are other means to recoup costs that can be explored. Jim Griffin has provided one solution, a pool model where “for the industry to succeed in online music, it needs to create a pool of money and work out a fair method of distributing that money — a model, Griffin says, that works for radio, restaurateurs, and television.” (Business 2.0).
This is only one example. The human mind has the ability to achieve unbelievable feats when it is required. Just look at some lawyers use of the law for examples of quick thinking innovation. Too many companies are resting on their laurels and wallowing in pits of muddy comfort. What better way to kick start the economy with a new injection of creativity.
Please everyone, don’t lose sight of what progress is all about. Don’t let big business keep us in the 20th Century because that is where they feel most comfortable. I’m sure there is much that you can do. Speak to your local government representative, email them, post a comment here, boycott a copy protected CD, buy a felt tip pen. Every little bit helps.
This post, inspired by this article, and this book.
Copyright law was created “to encourage the creation and broad dissemination of original works.” (Jim Griffin).
“The best way to predict the future is invent it.” (Alan Kay).
