Free for a Fee

As Wired reports, Bush Signs Law Creating Copyright Czar | Threat Level from Wired.com, it’s official: we’ve got a cabinet level position vested with fighting a war on copyright infringement. I guess as far as the digital realm goes, the publishers, music execs, recording associations and movie moguls got tired of fighting it on their own. And the war on drugs has been such a success, as a model, that it’s easy to see why they thought this might work…

Don’t blame the content industries for wanting all taxpayers’ (not just universities) to help them. It’s an uphill battle that they have absolutely no chance of winning, fighting as they are against the most important and most critical plus that the digital environment provides us: ubiquitous copies, instantly, everywhere, all the time. I’m afraid that the czar will do no better than the industry has done. Considering how our other federal tax dollar priorities stack up, it’s rather remarkable that taxpayers will be expected to pay for this use of time, money and effort.
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