TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

My grandfather fled ‘the Czar’; should Hollywood appoint one for copyright?

By David Rothman

I’m not too fond of “czars.” My grandfather fled the real thing—the Russian kind, anyway—more than a century ago. So did the ancestors of no small number of Hollywood and publishing executives. Regardless, some of these campaign contributors are telling Washington in effect, “Give us a copyright despot or at least a top cop. Screw the consumer.”

Tuesday night, Vice President Joe Biden appeared at a Hollywood-sponsored dinner and promised that the “right person” would ascend to the throne and become Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, a more polite way of describing the job.

The, ugh, “right” czar

So who should the “right person” be, if you’re got to have a “czar” or “coordinator”? To begin with, some law professors would have problems with the term “intellectual property in the official title. I’m of mixed mind. But I’d unequivocally oppose the word “enforcement.” Mr. Czar should consider copyright in its entirety. Here’s what I want to see, in terms of both the person and the job itself, even if that means a rewrite of the related legislation (summary here).

1. Someone who recognizes that the real bottom line isn’t just “enforcement,” but rather the encouragement of progress in the arts and sciences, just as the Constitution says. In other words, I don’t want Hollywood to appoint Mr. Czar. So far the supposedly progressively Obama administration has tilted in the direction of entertainment-biz-blessed appointees. To quote CNET: “The president chose as top Justice Department officials the music industry attorney who pulled the plug on Grokster and another longtime Recording Industry Association of America ligitator. The Obama administration recently sided with the RIAA in a file-sharing suit, and Biden was a staunch RIAA and MPAA ally as a U.S. senator.”

2. A czar who’ll actually stand up for consumers, too. Mr. Czar should work toward consumers being able to own e-books for real—an effort that’ll also help actual creators. Throwaway media are harder to take seriously. DRM turns e-books into throwaway items. I’d want Mr. Czar to encourage experimentation with social DRM and the like. In addition, Mr. Czar should work with regulators and congress to make certain that consumers know what they’re buying or not buying. With traditional DRM they’re renting. If Washington won’t deal with the ownership issue, this is yet more proof that fat-cat campaign donors, not the American people, control Washington.

3. Yes, a czar who will enforce, too. I favor a vigorous diplomatic offensive to shut down operations like Pirates Bay that clearly use P2P to rip off creators. While piracy in some cases might actually promote sales, I don’t think this will be the most sustainable approach over the long run—as, for example, people learn to value e-books as much p-books.

4. Someone who will encourage fairer treatment of writers and other creators, in terms of splits of earnings from “properties” involved. That means an end to Hollywood-creative accounting, so writers can confidently share the success of hit movies, for example.

Hey, I’m not anti-Hollywood, just pro-creativity. Barack Obama got the head of GM fired partly because the man was too set in his ways. Rather than pandering to the Hollywood and publishing establishments, Obama and Biden should do them a favor and encourage the people at the top to be open to new business models. Too bad those Hollywood campaign donations are such a distraction.