Content is Worthless, It’s the Community Stupid
Recently, Michael Lynton the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sony Pictures Entertainment wrote an op-ed piece about Internet piracy and Intellectual Property rights. After reading this article on the Huffington Post, I couldn’t disagree more vehemently with his stand on the future of the Internet.
In his piece Michael argues that, “unlike the Internet, the highways were built and operated with a set of rational guidelines. Guard rails went along dangerous sections of the road. Speed and weight limits saved lives and maintenance costs. And officers of the law made sure that these rules were obeyed.”
During the Nixon administration, a National Maximum Speed Limit was implemented in response to the OPEC oil embargo. In 1975 Congress passed legislation making the 55-mph National Maximum Speed Limit permanent. According to the National Motorist Association, “The legislation was passed largely due to a coalition of groups in support of the lower limit as a life-saving measure.”
In 1987, despite predictions of thousands of additional highway fatalities, Congress decided to allow states to raise Interstate and expressway speed limits to 65 mph. As presented by the NMA, “Opponents of the repeal claimed that without a national speed limit fatalities would increase by over 6,000 victims in the first year alone. Instead, many states raised limits to 70 or 75 mph, expanded 65-mph speed limits to other roads, and the number of fatalities actually declined.”
According to NMA Communications Director Eric Skrum, “this clearly demonstrated that the 22-year-long experiment with an arbitrary national speed limit served no positive purpose. It wasted time, resources, and billions of dollars while neither reducing fuel consumption nor improving highway safety.” Mr. Lynton this isn’t the 1950′s and the Internet is not an Interstate Highway System.
The Sony CEO goes on to further explain saying, “The Internet has brought people with no regard for the intellectual property of others together with a technology that allows them to easily steal that property and sell or give it away to everyone, with little fear of being caught or prosecuted.”
Mr. Lynton, it’s not stealing. It’s called sharing and we all learned this lesson in kindergarten. The Internet is designed and ideally suited to easily sharing content. That’s exactly the power of the Internet. To call sharing stealing is misguided and wrong. Once you realize that the flow of information and content across the Internet and the world is a good thing, you’ll realize that content is worthless. As I stated in the title of this article, it’s the community stupid.
Mr. Lynton goes on to further clarify his point stating, “my point is this: the major content businesses of the world and the most talented creators of that content — music, newspapers, movies and books — have all been seriously harmed by the Internet.” Really? Did he just say that every content provider has been harmed by the Internet. I thought the Internet propelled us into the information age, created millions of jobs and billions of dollars of new wealth across the world. Or did I miss something?
The Internet has leveled the playing field allowing more content to be produced and distributed. The Internet has opened new forms of creativity from blogs to podcasts to video to web art and mp3 music downloads. It’s incredibly unfortunate to hear a leading CEO say that sharing content on the Internet is stealing. It’s clear to me that Michael does not understand the power of the Internet and his company will suffer from his distorted vision.
Michael and other Fortune 500 CEO’s should listen carefully. Content is worthless. It’s the community built around content that has immense value. Steve Jobs and Apple get it. Matt Mullenweg and Automattic get it. To say sharing content on the Internet is stealing is a viewpoint from within a walled garden. It’s anathema to the openess and transparency which underpins the amazing power of the Internet.
This online newspaper is an example of the power of sharing content. We openly and freely share all of our content with anyone who would like to share it as well. The only thing we ask for is attribution so that we may continue to build great community online and produce and share even more engaging content for your enlightenment and entertainment.
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Posted by Geoffrey Sakala
on Jun 14 2009. Filed under Viewpoints.
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Lynton is a prime example of a mind set always looking to make more money from other people’s creativity and hard work, without himself being either creative or hard working. Sony Pictures may “pay” a writer to do a script (often based on someone else’s story or idea) and also “pay” a crew to make the film (however, except for a few “top stars”, most writers, actors and crew memberes get only a small percent of the final revenue that Sony will get from most of its films). Sony and Lynton are not happy just to get money from the film’s distribution to theatories. They want you to buy a Blue Ray that only plays on Sony machines (or ones they get royalities from). Of course Sony, like many other studios, is big on sequels – rather than creating a new movie.
You are so correct Geoffrey, what the internet has done is open the creative process up to thousands. Niche music that “mainstream labels” would touch can find hungry audiences who long for that style or sound. Writers can directly reach folks interested in their words. As importantly there is feedback and a two-way flow if ideas.
The Post is a prime example of the good things that the internet can bring for a community.
No one is saying that piracy is good, but allowing Sony to direct how to regular the web for the rest of us would be a greater crime.
Kevin I agree. No one person or entity should control the internet, content or content sharing. We want everyone to have the ability to Create and Share their work for everyone to enjoy. That’s one of the primary reasons we allow our readers to post articles, photos, and videos on The Rancho Cordova Post. Although we do review each submission for appropriateness, we do not censor or limit free speech. Our hope is that this type of openness will foster community building online and off and ultimately lead to better informed and more connected neighbors.