Spoo is not alone in observing that effective lobbying and public relations by powerful interest groups like the RIAA, MPAA, and AAP are moving public understanding of the purpose of copyright away from “the progress of Science and useful Arts” to the protection of the inherent property entitlements of creators, content providers, and rights holders. Alarmist arguments about the imminent collapse of the content industries are as old as the player piano (which music publishers insisted spelled their doom) and the videocassette player (ditto for the MPAA).
via What exactly is “piracy” in the digital age? – The Los Angeles Review of Books.
It is an irony commonly noted that the fiercest and highest-profile American crusader for expanded copyright protection — the Walt Disney Company — is also the most successful and influential exploiter of the public domain in human history, and certainly one would expect a corporation, a machine for making money, to be immune to irony.
