Eisner on Intellectual Property and the Net

OK, I’ll admit it. I had an idea of what Disney’s Michael Eisner would say in the Financial Times even before reading the article, and I figured I wouldn’t agree. It turns out that I only mostly don’t agree.

The first thing that jumped out at me from that article is this quote from Abraham Lincoln:

The patent system changed this; secured to the inventor, for a limited time, the exclusive use of his invention;

I snipped out the bulk of the quote. This particular snippet mentioned “for a limited time”, just like the Constitution does. Man, to see Eisner of the Mouse House using a quote that mentions “limited time” is crazy! Disney was one of the big proponents of the Copyright Term Extension Act that keeps early Mickey Mouse films from falling into the public domain for another couple decades.

As I said above, I mostly don’t agree with Eisner. The part I do agree with is that stealing is bad. I do believe that copyright laws are useful, though I believe that the current terms are way too long. I also believe that a copyright owner has the right to decide how much they want to charge for their goods. And consumers have the right to buy other goods instead. I do not believe that copyright owners should choose how I use the goods for my own personal use.

I’m hoping to launch my new project soon and I hope to show Eisner and the music-loving public that big media has it wrong. And I hope that myself and others like me will be able to show this other reality before any more stupid laws are passed.