Debate 4/Debate 4 Argument Against

Resolved: The outcome of the digital intellectual property crisis is crucial to whether or not the use of the Internet ultimately has a positive impact in terms of strengthening democracies.

Quick Link to the Argument For

Introduction

Framing the Debate

• Thus far in this course, we have discussed the impact of the internet in terms of strengthening democracy through the lenses of participatory democracy and economic democracy. This week, we're extending our analysis to include semiotic democracy--the democratization of the formation of culture--and asking in what ways changing intellectual property laws influence the impact of the Internet on these three conceptions of democracy.
• We make two arguments with respect to this week’s resolution:
  • First, IP laws have little effect on Internet's ability to positively impact participatory democracy (and less significantly, economic democracy). Even in the case of an entirely dead semiotic democracy, the Internet’s profound impact here is clear.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t201/MikeyBB26/Picture2.png

• • Second, even accepting a neutral effect of the internet on participatory democracy, semiotic democracy can flourish in an environment of harsh IP laws, in a "Free Culture Stack," independent of proprietary culture. The extent to which a "Free Culture" stack flourishes will correlate directly with the harshness of IP laws. We must understand that even if legal standards existed for content holders to fully protect and control their content, this "read-only" Internet is simply unlikely to emerge. Just because content holders will possess the power potential to do this, it is unlikely they will. Consumer preferences will simply inhibit any attempt to impose such restrictive controls. If the "right to read" scenario comes to pass, the author that publishes under a less restrictive licensing regime will become an instant bestseller.

http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w34/adjkatz/CopyrightSchemes.jpg

Copyright Law vs. Private Ordering

For a good summary, see Terry Fisher's post on Lessig's blog

http://lumpau.freeshell.org/four_modalities.png

• Copyright law is not the only modality that defines the limits of content creation. Technology enables creators to lock down their content (e.g., ebooks, DVD copy protection, broadcast flag). Therefore, it's important to recognize that even a highly permissive copyright regime may have a limited impact on advancing semiotic democracy.

Intellectual Property Laws and Participatory Democracy

No matter how the IP 'crisis' unfolds, participatory democracy, on balance, will be strengthened by the internet.

• Even if a very restrictive IP regime were to emerge, participatory democracy on the Internet will not be substantially affected. Among the positive impacts of the internet on participatory democracy that would not be affected by IP laws, include (see Debate 1 for detailed arguments):
  • Political discourse on the internet is unlikely to be affected. Regardless of IP laws, the Internet will allow individuals to disseminate their ideas more quickly and to a broader audience.
  • With respect to elections in particular, fringe ideas, third parties, etc. have the opportunity to interject in political debates.
  • Individuals can organize on an unprecedented scale. Geography is no longer a barrier to contributing to large projects.
  • The Internet makes individuals and institutions more transparent and accountable. Anyone can break a story—not just the mainstream media—and fact-checking becomes a lot easier when information is digitized and searchable. Polls gauging opinion are also far easier and cheaper to conduct.
• The argument against a positive impact of the Internet on participatory democracy is weak, perhaps boiling down to merely the following quote:
  • Fine, the internet has made contacting other people for political reasons easier. But that is because it has made everything easier. Shopping, spreading gossip, and finding friends are all easier now. But this makes it all a wash. If the internet made ONLY political action easier, more people would gravitate toward political action than otherwise would. But, since everything is easier, people will gravitate toward their predisposed tendencies. "It's easier to shop now, yay!
    • This impact of the Internet is only “a wash” if we’re considering substitution effects of what becomes “easier” to do. But if everything becomes easier to do, individuals will be able to do more things—like organize a debate watch party (‘’participatory’’), contribute to an innovation (‘’economic’’), or create a Vote Different video (‘’semiotic’’).
    • What if cultural creativity and political participation are to a certain extent mutually exclusive? I.e., I'm too busy watching movies on Youtube to vote?

What is the connection between Semiotic Democracy and Participatory Democracy?

• The IP crisis principally effects the workings of semiotic democracy. It is unclear the extent to which semiotic democracy (the manipulation and sharing of extant cultural products) and participatory democracy overlap. For every "Vote Different" ad that uses existing cultural products to further political discussion there are thousands of blog posts, comments, and Internet videos, that are entirely unaffected by IP concerns in the cultural sphere.
• While the ability to embed YouTube videos of FoxNews coverage right into a blog post or quote liberally from the New York Times may be curtailed by harsher IP laws, that is a cherry on top of the Internet sundae. Under any IP regime, the Internet will continue to allow for the dissemination of individual non-derivative ideas.

What is Semiotic Democracy?

Semiotic democracy is the ability for individuals to shape culture. It should only be narrowly understood as the creation of derivative works; the most powerful contribution of the Internet is in serving as a vehicle for widespread, cheap distribution--not only of mash-ups, but of any cultural products created by individuals regardless of wealth or status.

We often conflate the notion of the "mashup" with "semiotic democracy."

Mashups are a type of cultural product produced in a semiotic democratic culture - they are not the only products. Most content produced in this system comes directly from users and does not rely on the direct use (as in taking snippets of video clips, text, or audio files) of "prorietary culture." Typical cultural products make indirect use (reference, allusion, link, trackback) to "propretiary culture," or no use at all (justin.tv).

The Internet has clearly enhanced the ease, cost-effectiveness, and breadth of distribution available to non-commercial content creators. In Free Culture, Lessig describes two types of cultural products - commercial and non-commercial. It is instructive that Lessig describes the latter in the following way: "when old men sat around parks or on street corners telling stories that kids and others consumer, that was noncommercial culture." In that scenario, how important is semiotic democracy? Can these old men actually have impact?

The Internet makes it possible to actualize the possibility of freedom in semiotic democracy. The power of noncommercial culture is significantly greater because of the superior distribution mechanism.

Restrictive IP Laws May Actually Benefit Both Participatory and Semiotic Democracy: Economic Argument

It is possible that a restrictive IP regime will actually be beneficial to participatory democracy online.

• Political blogging tends to the extremes
  • Why?
    • Content creation activities are time-consuming and labor intensive. Current lack of economic incentives may be leading to a clustering on the extremes within the online community's intellectual debate. Greater economic incentives will encourage more mainstream participation in Internet debate and discussion.
• A restricti