Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Umair Haque explains property rights in his fuzzy little cloud world

"What's needed is a rights shift - for a radical innovator to fundamentally redefine the nature of property rights in an industry (which is really what YouTube and Myspace are doing)" says Umair Haque in response to the Viacom vs. Umair Haque controversy.

So: Umair is saying that his economics theories depend on a change in the law.

Nice.

What kind of change did you have in mind, Umair? Legalizing property theft? Revising the copyright laws such that everything ever produced now belongs to the collective? Making one law for everyone else's work and another for your own?

Umair, Umair, Umair: how can it be right for you to pontificate on everyone else being willing to give up their IPR when you don't want analysts "ripping off" your own? How does your property rights revisionism proposal stack up anywhere outside the bubble of your über-ego? Even China, one of the last bastions of The People's property, thinks you are wrong.

You are, unsually, right that the law needs to change. But the most likely change is a tightening of the DMCA to remove the gaping loopholes that exist today - fair use abuse and the need for the copyright holder to police the abusers with desist notices. Ignorance is no defence, and defiant, persistent, unlawful ignorance - like that displayed on certain bubbleblogs - should be criminal.

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