When it comes to copyright, who speaks for the everyday person?
Really, we know that when laws are made and cases brought to court, certain groups of people are more equal than others. When access = money, that’s the kind of thing that’s bound to occur. Jason Fry asks some important questions in the Wall Street Journal,
Who speaks for us when these laws are made and these cases come before judges? Why are we reduced to hoping the interests of a cable company, radio conglomerate or Internet giant temporarily align with our own? How much more of this must we endure before some fairness is restored? And when that day finally arrives — if it does at all — what will we have lost?
And really, how do we know what we lost?
There have been some responses from groups of people getting together in the form of Creative Commons, Public Knowledge, and EFF. What they do is impressive, but it’s not enough by itself. We need people in the legislature and in the courts really critically evaluating the public interest along with the other things they examine.