Promote File Sharing and the Culture of Creativity

[via bOINGbOING] Here is an excerpt from a letter sent by Cory Doctorow by way of the “Action Centre” provided by the so-called Campaign for Creativity (which to all appearances wants in fact to constrain creativity by strengthening and extending current European copyright regimes):

“In a world where 80 percent of the music ever recorded isn't available for sale anywhere, the [peer-to-peer] networks have revived what is, quite literally, the largest library of human creativity ever assembled. They did it for free, and the library has resisted the best attempts of the most powerful entertainment companies in the world to burn it to the ground.

“Your role as lawmakers should be to help us keep the library standing. Instead of disasters like the IPR Enforcement Directive (whose Anton Pillar orders make a mockery of due process) and the EUCD (whose anti-circumvention provisions chill speech and innovation), give us balanced IP laws that take into account the public interest in allowing technology to flourish.

“If rights-holders are indeed financially challenged here (and that's a big if -- every audit of their claims of economic harm has found nothing but hot air and funny book-keeping behind those claims, and the film studios just had their best box-office year in the entire history of their industry) then solve the problem in the traditional manner: Give the public the opportunity to buy a blanket license like those employed by radio stations, a license that, for the payment of a simple fee, would grant Europeans the right to go on using the best tool ever devised for disseminating and reproducing creative works without facing prison and fines for building the biggest library ever assembled.

“That's how to promote creativity. That's how to preserve the public interest.” Doctorow’s full right-on-with-your-right-on essaylet is available here.