David Pogue on the Generational Divide in Copyright Morality
Was going through my mail today and came across a column by David Pogue of the New York Times describing the generational divide that exists today around copyright. He walks through an interesting thought process that really highlights the different shades of gray that exist around sharing digital media today - and in particular, really illustrates generational attitude differences. Here's a snippet of responses from a talk he gave to an older, mixed audience (with an ask for people to raise their hands when someone thought the example crossed the line of legality):
"I borrow a CD from the library. Who thinks that's wrong?" (No hands go up.)
"I
own a certain CD, but it got scratched. So I borrow the same CD from
the library and rip it to my computer." (A couple of hands.)
"I have 2,000 vinyl records. So I borrow some of the same albums on CD from the library and rip those."
"I buy a DVD. But I'm worried about its longevity; I have a three-year-old. So I make a safety copy."
With each question, more hands go up; more people think what I'm describing is wrong.
Then I try another tack:
"I
record a movie off of HBO using my DVD burner. Who thinks that's
wrong?" (No hands go up. Of course not; time-shifting is not only
morally O.K., it's actually legal.)
"I *meant* to record an HBO movie, but my recorder malfunctioned. But my buddy recorded it. Can I copy his DVD?" (A few hands.)
"I
meant to record an HBO movie, but my recorder malfunctioned and I don't
have a buddy who recorded it. So I rent the movie from Blockbuster and
copy that." (More hands.)
And so on.
The exercise is
intended, of course, to illustrate how many shades of wrongness there
are, and how many different opinions. Almost always, there's a lot of
murmuring, raised eyebrows and chuckling.
He then describes how he goes through the same exercise with a college crowd:
Recently, however, I spoke at a college. It was the first time I'd
ever addressed an audience of 100 percent young people. And the
demonstration bombed.
In an auditorium of 500, no matter how far
my questions went down that garden path, maybe two hands went up. I
just could not find a spot on the spectrum that would trigger these
kids' morality alarm. They listened to each example, looking at me like
I was nuts.
Finally, with mock exasperation, I said, "O.K., let's
try one that's a little less complicated: You want a movie or an album.
You don't want to pay for it. So you download it."
There it was: the bald-faced, worst-case example, without any nuance or mitigating factors whatsoever.
"Who thinks that might be wrong?"
Two hands out of 500.
Now, maybe there was some peer pressure involved; nobody wants to look like a goody-goody.
Maybe
all this is obvious to you, and maybe you could have predicted it. But
to see this vivid demonstration of the generational divide, in person,
blew me away.
I don't pretend to know what the solution to the
file-sharing issue is. (Although I'm increasingly convinced that copy
protection isn't it.)
I do know, though, that the TV, movie and
record companies' problems have only just begun. Right now, the
customers who can't even *see* why file sharing might be wrong are
still young. But 10, 20, 30 years from now, that crowd will be
*everybody*. What will happen then?
I found this particularly interesting since I've spent quite a bit of time this holiday trying to figure out the best way to archive and playback some of my DVDs from the basement media server. Although the Xbox 360 Fall update enables a bunch of new scenarios, it's still not an easy task, especially if you want to stream the content at its original quality... and DRM is one of the primary culprits.
This is my personal opinion, of course, but I just don't think DRM (at least in its currently highly-restrictive state) is going to be the primary enabler of legitimate digital media sharing/purchasing business models in the long run. For one, consumers hate it - heck, even I detest the 24-hour viewing period for downloaded movies... including the ones from the Xbox marketplace. And the cat and mouse game between DRM providers and hackers will never end. As David says, 10, 20, or 30 years from now the world will be a very different place... especially as those of us who grew up with the concept of being able to use digital media flexibly become the same people who define the rules and laws around using that content.
To be clear, I think that future will have ways for content owners to be paid - that's obvious, or content simply would stop being created! But it's very interesting to watch the business models change from year to year - the fluidity with which DRM-free MP3s have slipped into the market is a great signpost pointing toward the future.
Right - enough rambling for now. Happy New Year!