“An unbalanced blindside in a tendentious hit piece which is clearly designed to advance an agenda.”
“Wu is not to be taken seriously, and until pigs fly, he hasn’t a prayer of making his kook agenda stick.”
The Sample Troll article has set off lots of debate on forums. I like being criticized — means you’ve hit a nerve!
Most of the criticism I’ve seen revolves around the following:
1. Hip hop artists merely untalented idiots who are just ripping off legitimate artists;
2. Reversing Bridgeport is the same as abolishing copyright and basically a variation of Marxism; once you have collected rights, they are not to be criticized;
3. Tim Wu is working for Universal and/or a hack who has never worked in business (other than the years at Riverstone), or never owned IP (other than my book, photos, and various articles);
4. Nothing he proposes will ever happen, so Wu should be ignored.
If these are the strongest arguments my critics have, bring it on!
I’ll address the fourth argument, which is the only one that isn’t obviously self-defeating. I think odds are that the law in fact will change to make their business untenable. I don’t think that the 6th Circuit’s position will survive scrutiny in other courts–the 2d Circuit, importantly, or the Supreme Court.
In other words, the Second circuit breaking from Bridgeport is a far cry from pigs flying–
Of course, there is plenty of support too, like this
“To register ad hoc the works of an artist ficticiously so as to capitalize on an otherwise vague, difficult-to-enforce law is just a criminal as the purported act. It stinks and everyone is the loser except the vultures and ambulance chasers.”
Other discussions:
At digg
At Muses’sMuse
At KVR
