I just finished reading David
Pogue’s fascinating article on the
copyright morality of today’s youth (thanks for the link, Ian
Jukes!). Here’s the key quote:
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?
Read the comments to Pogue’s post too!
Ah, but wait until these young people try to earn a living by the sweat of their cognition or creativity, by their written best or their witty banter. Morality is just an exercise until it affects you. In other words, why pay much attention to those red signs at the end of the street until you are a driver?
“Ah, but wait until these young people try to earn a living by the sweat of their cognition […]”
They will see that allowing people to share copies of their work is the best way to maximize the possibility of income.
Scott,
Have you seen this. Provides an interesting angle for debate…
Steal this Film
http://www.stealthisfilm.com/Part2/
Wendy
It’s difficult to understand the reasons for protecting creative works until you’ve created something of value to other people. Students have more idle time in more conducive (online) settings, feel somewhat protected (by their parents / university network) from legal threats, and have less discretionary money to spend on legally-obtained content.
In 10, 20, 30 years, these factors will come into play, and I think things will be pretty similar to how they are now, media consumption-wise.
I’m interested in the long-term effects of the subtle digital divide within copying among youth. What happens if only richer students (with broadband, iPods, more computers per family, etc) are exposed to a wide variety of commercial and independent music, and poorer students only listen to their favorite radio stations?
Of course a lot of students are creating things (videos, songs, mashups, games, photos, etc.) and making them freely available to all. More of the Creative Commons / ‘everything on the Web should be free’ ethos…