The Max Keiser PirateMyFilm Pre-Beta Blog: Copyright ‘term extension’ cancer

I pulled the following comments from recent posts:

Max: On the one hand you’re talking about “de-commercialization of art” and on the other you’re saying there are “revenue streams” for PMF.
So which is it?
You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

And:

Max, Nature is the ultimate creative force, who does it pay? It pays itself, it feeds back into itself, creating more diversity through better design. Nature, as culture, is selfishly unselfish, it is a system of favours, a system of mutual appreciation and ultimately a matrix of a trillion trillion trillion moments of piracy.

These two comments sum up the interesting interplay between the economy and the ecology. The economy should mirror the ecology more than not. Even Adam Smith hints at this in his famous works written during the time economic liberalism’s creation during the period of the Enlightenment. What most people equate with a ‘fast growing economy’ is nothing of the sort. Any economy or any component of an economy that is growing faster than the host economy or host political system or country has to be considered more cancerous than organic.

The banking system in the UK and US over the past 25 years went from being an organic subsidiary of the economy to a cancerous parasite threatening now to destroy the US and the UK the same way runaway ‘financialization’ has destroyed Iceland, and soon to be Ireland.

PirateMyFilm will restore some balance to the creative-industrial complex that has been overrun with the copyright ‘term extension’ cancer. Every twenty years, when Mickey Mouse is set to enter the public domain from whence it came, the copyright ‘term extension’ cancer metastasizes another 20 years. We can’t all just OK another 20 year term extension for all copyrights – to appease Disney – thus putting out of reach for humanity’s enjoyment the creative endeavors of our cultural artifacts for the quarter-to-quarter interests of a few copyright monopolists and a talking rodent.

The copyright reform movement is about restoring public ownership to the public’s cultural artifacts that are currently imprisoned on corporate balance sheets by onerous and immoral copyright laws designed by the copyright cartel for the benefit of the copyright cartel.

In other words, I think we can have our cake and eat it to. Just like nature, business can flow in multiple ways with multiple beneficiaries in a positive-sum game of creativity and compensation. Destroying the cancer of current copyright draculas will not eliminate the ability of artists to make money.

9 Responses to The Max Keiser PirateMyFilm Pre-Beta Blog: Copyright ‘term extension’ cancer

francesco nicolella | April 13, 2009 at 6:33 am |

i found it strange that nobody is talking about CREATIVE COMMONS licence. i think is vary good. it allows you to claim your credit but still permit to other people to use your material. what do you think?
Danny | April 13, 2009 at 6:49 am |

Max,
I can’t understand these blogs of yours. i think one of us needs to lay off the crack pipe!? (or is it craic??)
Adam | April 13, 2009 at 8:15 am |

There’s a timely article on NYT (sorry, Max!) about Ecological Economy: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/opinion/12zencey.html?em

In particular, regarding copyright: “An animal can’t live perpetually on its own excreta.”

Readers may also be interested in Kevin Kelly’s ’1000 True Fans’: http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/03/1000_true_fans.php

That aspiration, combined with a ‘socially-proofed’ PMF-powered prediction/precreation market, sounds like a winner to me.

KK also notes a reembursement feature of Fundable http://www.fundable.com that might help people to make PMF-style investments: “Fundable withholds the money until the full amount is collected. They return the money if the minimum is not reached.”

@francesco Creative Commons helps the creator to ‘spread’ content once it’s made, but it does little to help fund its creation.
max keiser | April 13, 2009 at 8:25 am |

I am very familiar with Frederick Soddy’s work. Also, Lawrence Lessig has made similar observations relating to the copyright eco-system.
William | April 13, 2009 at 11:25 am |

Actually, the saying is: “you can’t eat your cake, and have it too!”

Having your cake and then eating it; is no problem.

It’s one of those sayings that has been warped.
Richard Buchanan | April 13, 2009 at 11:44 am |

An animal can’t live forever on its own excrement? But trees and plants can grow from it. Economics is a holistic system, just like nature. Eco(nomic)-System! If you deprive a plant an animals poo poo, the plant doesn’t grow bigger to exponentially create more food and more poo. We need to create a feedback system. Interest on debt is ultimately designed to own 5% of infinity. As we all now 5% of infinity is infinity!!!!
Palantíri | April 13, 2009 at 12:56 pm |

Just wondering, what meaning do you give to the word “pirate” from the name PirateMyFilm? If the site is about financing movie projects and the internet-piracy is about getting stuff for free, how do you merge that together?
MARK BRANT | April 13, 2009 at 8:58 pm |

I like the metaphor of unrestrained quant-ease as cancerous growth of money but remember there are
cancer cells benefiting from money expansion and they are in control. Success goes with the flow. Good intentions based on noble ideas can succeed but they
do not represent the strong players in this econo-ecology. LOVE LOVE LOVE IS FREE! Chirp, tweet!
James Colt | April 15, 2009 at 3:40 pm |

The information and insights provided by Max are
very helpful for those who want to understand who
the real power players are in the world.