3 author: Jarosław Lipszyc
13 The above report of the meetings of experts does not
14 start with a methodological introduction, but a fairy
15 tale written by Aymeric Mansoux to the literary contest
16 “Future of Copyright” (2012), organized by the Modern
17 Poland Foundation. Using a matrix of Vladimir Propp’s
18 classic work on the structure of fairy tales, Mansoux is
19 looking for answers to the question of the author, and
20 participation in culture. Therefore, he leads his female character through the twists and turns of copyright
21 and communications technologies, where she collides
22 with symbolic protagonists and is looking constantly for
23 ways out from the situation with no way out.
25 In the abundand with meanings fairy tale by Mansoux
26 one thing is striking: the total lack of belief that the
27 response to the crisis caused by a collision of intellectual monopolies with the practice of communication
28 through electronic media can be a “free culture” project based on voluntary licenses and the resulting business models. Ten years ago the success of free software, which has created real and existing alternatives
29 to proprietary software, gave hope that a similar effect
30 can be achieved in other areas of the circulation of information. We believed that, by using and promoting
31 licensing mechanisms, we can “hack the system” and
32 create an alternative to the system within the system.
33 Today, we know well that this is not true. It is true that
34 in some areas free licenses are an effective tool for
35 the recovery of subjectivity by authors and users of
36 informaton (and a good example here is probably the
37 movement of free educational resources), but in a broader cultural practice this tactics is simply ineffective.
39 Culture is always built on existing narratives. You can
40 not participate in the processes of social communication in isolation from pre-existing myths, memes,
41 songs; you need to use them in constructing your own
42 messages. Culture is not a tool that - like software - we
43 use to achieve pragmatic goals. Culture is our identity.
45 Therefore the only solution Mansoux sees is the total
46 abolition of the system of exclusive rights. Does this
47 literary diagnosis go too far? Probably so. But not without a reason the recently announced draft of the
48 European Commission’s work on copyright is entitled
49 “In the pursuit of new consensus ...”. The copyright law is
50 currently the most discussed element of the European
51 and global legal order. From the protests against ACTA
52 (the most mass demonstrations in Poland since 1989)
53 to this year’s public consultation of copyright by the
54 European Commission, in which a record of 9.5 thousand citizens and companies participated sending in
55 over 11 thousand comments, the copyright law awakens emotions.
57 But although the reform of the system now seems
58 inevitable, the direction of change is still uncertain.
59 Copyright law is a lens focusing a lot of different and
60 complex problems - from issues related to fundamental rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of communication and right to privacy, through constitutional
61 models of political life, to tectonic changes in the markets caused by technological changes. The status of
62 this legislation determines not only the work of many
63 business sectors, but also the basic issues related to
64 communication of hundreds of millions of people, a lot
65 of citizens treating copyright law as a way of earning
66 a living, level of education, or the operation of high
67 culture. Therefore, sets of political values are strictly
68 associated with the copyright regulations.
70 Presenting to you the results of workshops devoted to
71 reflection on the future of communication by the media and cultures in the era of the information society,
72 we need to point out the difficulties associated with
73 the speculative and somewhat abstract nature of the
74 work done by us. We have adopted the form of work
75 inspired by the methodology of foresight. Exploratory
76 workshops, to which we invited experts from many
77 different fields, were meant to indicate possible directions of change in Europe in the perspective of 2040.
79 It soon turned out that the key to outline the future
80 of copyright and operating models of culture are two
81 axes: position of intermediaries in the process of social communication and direction of public policies in
82 the field of communication. The construction method,
83 and the scope and stringency of intellectual monopolies are mainly due to the latter, but legal solutions are
84 derived from the game of many different actors, the
85 authorities being only one of them. For example, international treaties taking precedence over the local
86 legal system are even in democratic countries proceeded beyond any social control.
88 Basing scenarios for the future on these two axes is also
89 reflected in our diagnosis that the two most important
90 trends of development of communication by the media are the development of monopolies towards their
91 mediation in communication (including the circulation
92 of culture) and the continous increase of areas seized
93 by intellectual monopolies. These trends can be metaphorically called “Facebook iceberg” and “Amazon
94 iceberg”. The first is the model of a centralized communications system which monetizes privacy, the second is a model of centralized distribution system which
95 monetizes monopoly on access to content. Of course,
96 in business practice we observe various hybrid solutions, an important role being also played by suppliers
97 of equipment and financial services, but for analytical
98 purposes this model is roomy enough to be able to serve the description of reality. It is important that both
99 models assume the intermediaries control over communications processes. An unattended sphere from
100 the point of view of business is a loss, and its existence
101 means narrowing of the field on which the circulation
102 of information is commercialized. However, similarly as
103 the existence of public space in cities or public services
104 in the country, the existence of the uncontrolled communicational space is crucial from the point of view of
105 the public interest. Democracy and standing behind it
106 civic ideals of subjectivity can not exist in an environment where freedom of speech and freedom of communication become empty platitudes due to the lack
107 of Agora not under control. The more Amazon iceberg
108 is coming to Facebook iceberg, the less space remains
109 for the boat of freedom to glide.
111 Only two decades ago, it seemed that the societies
112 braided by communications network would defend
113 themselves. Slogans such as “Information wants to
114 be free” by Stewart Brand and “Network defines censorship as damage and celebrates it around” by John
115 Gillmore were extremely successful in 1990, and the
116 myth of the Web as the space of unfettered freedom
117 is sometimes taken as fact, what with the aftermath
118 of calls for different “Twitter revolutions.” In practice,
119 of course, freedom of speech is primarily due to standards of public life, and the Internet media are prone to
120 control and manipulation to the same extent as traditional mass media. The emancipatory potential of technology has been definitely overpriced, and this means
121 that the freedom of communication has to be arrived
122 at by political means. Therefore, the communications
123 regulations (including copyright) are so crucial to the
126 Sadly, we have to assume that none of the scenarios
127 for the future, which are the result of the work of the
128 expert group, presents itself as a utopia fulfilled and
129 the Promised Land. Regardless of which direction we
130 will develop our civilization, dilemmas, problems and
131 difficult compromises are waiting for us. According
132 to the well-known thesis democracy is a method of
133 avoiding the worst solutions, rather than choosing the
134 best. We hope that our report will help identify the directions of change that lead to disaster. To avoid them.
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