Stanford Daily: Disney chairman speaks at gathering. He likened computer piracy to stealing apples from a storekeeper, saying, “Intellectual property rights are no different than regular property rights . . . Theft will not be tolerated in any form.”
Either Eisner doesn’t know what he’s talking about or he’s an outright liar. Either way, what he said is simply not true.
Intellectual property rights are extremely different from “regular” property rights because intellectual property is different from other property. My exclusive rights (or my heirs’ or assignees’) to the computer I’m using right now do not expire, ever. The exclusive rights to what I’m typing expire after a certain number of years.
You have no right to borrow my computer without my consent. You have every right to borrow some of these words — I hope you’ll give them attribution — to create works of your own. You have the right, if you read this in the newspaper or download it, to make a personal copy for your own use or even send it to a friend. This is called “fair use,” and it’s at the heart of scholarship and innovation, and individual rights.
Eisner and his pals in Hollywood and the music industry think fair use in the digital age equals piracy. They are taking us down a technological path where they have absolute control over media content. They want the ability to force everyone to pay every time content is used for any purpose. They would ruin the multi-directional potential of the Internet in order to protect their aging business models. They, not we, are the real pirates.
We can’t afford to let let them get away with this. And for starters, let’s not allow them to get away with misrepresenting the truth.