1. Creators and their public: from the long route to the short route
The case is often made that copyright, as we have known it for three centuries (which after all is a brief parenthesis in the longue durée of the millennial history of information technology), may no longer be an appropriate tool for the needs of creators and society in a digital environment. What is the basis for this — arguably bold; but also quite widespread — argument?[1] The reply is quite straightforward: in the last two decades or so, the social and technological basis of creation has been radically transformed. The time has come for us to be aware that, in our post-post-industrial age, the long route — which used to lead the work from its creator to the public by passing through different categories of businesses — is gradually being replaced by a short route, which puts creators and the public in direct contact. This development may be sketched as follows.[2]
In the analogue word, direct access to the market by creators was confined to a limited number of special cases.[3] Otherwise, it could be taken for granted that the intermediation of business was necessary to bring works from creators to markets. In particular, books and records needed to be printed. For this purpose some kind of “factory” was required to
- ↑ See Lawrence Lessig, Remix: Making Art And Commerce Thrive In The Hybrid Economy (New York: Penguin, 2008); Volker Grassmuck, “The World is Going Flat(-Rate): A Study Showing Copyright Exception for Legalizing File-Sharing Feasible as a Cease-Fire in the ’War on Copyright’ Emerges”, Intellectual Property Watch, 11 May 2009, available at http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2009/05/11/the-world-is-going-flat-rate; Philippe Aigrain, Internet and Création: Comment Reconnaitre les Échanges sur Internet en Financant la Création (Cergy-Pontoise: In Libro Veritas, 2008); Yochai Benkler, “Sharing Nicely: On Shareable Goods and the Emergence of Sharing as a Modality of Economic Production”, Yale Law Journal, 114 (2004), 273—358. A very open minded approach is also advocated by the speech made by WIPO’s Director General, Francis Gurry, “The Future of Copyright”, Sydney (25 February 2011), available at http://www.wipo.int/about-wipo/en/dgo/speeches/dg_blueskyconf_11.html. A theoretical framework to the re-orientation of the assessment of the rules concerning information products is arguably provided by the literature devoted to common pools resources and more specifically to its extension to knowledge and information commons; see in this connection Charlotte Hess and Elinor Ostrom, “Introduction: An Overview of the Knowledge Commons”, in Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: From Theory to Practice, ed. by Charlotte Hess and Elinor Ostrom (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007), pp. 3—26.
- ↑ For additional references see Marco Ricolfi, “Individual and Collective Management of Copyright in a Digital Environment” in Copyright Law: A Handbook of Contemporary Research, ed. by Paul Torremans (Cheltenham; Edward Elgar, 2008), pp. 283-314 (pp. 285, 308—14).
- ↑ Such as the bohemian painter personally seeking out patrons in order to sell his paintings or the wandering gipsy carrying around his violin.
