Book Review of Starving the Artist by William Aicher
As copyright becomes more and more of a hot-button issue on the Web, inevitably more and more authors are releasing books on the topic.
The notable books (and controversial) books on the topic released in the past few years have included Digital Barbarism: A Writer’s Manifesto by Mark Helprin, The Cult of the Amateur: How blogs, MySpace, YouTube, and the rest of today’s user-generated media are destroying our economy, our culture, and our values by Andrew Keen, The Little Book of Plagiarism by Judge Richard Posner, Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy by Lawrence Lessig and Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson (which was the subject of a plagiarism controversy of its own) just to name a few.
However, William Aicher is a relatively new addition to this field. Though he has blogged about copyright-related issues on his site for some time, his first book on the topic, a short self-published work called Starving the Artist: How the Internet Culture of “Free” Threatens to Exterminate the Creative Class, and What Can Be Done to Save It is a relatively unusual entrant into the field.
But what makes Aicher’s book unique isn’t what can be seen on the cover, but rather that it is a book on copyright that manages to avoid being mired in debates on law, philosophy and/or personal anecdotes. Even more impressive, it avoids personal attacks and even comes across as balanced and nuanced.
Though not particularly earth-shattering, it manages to be friendly enough for a casual reader and still have enough to hold the interest of someone more dedicated to copyright issues.
Still, it seems to be a book struggling for an audience and that may be the biggest flaw the book has.
Background
Aicher’s tome is not a lengthy work by any stretch. At only 70 pages not counting forward and introduction, even an average reader can breeze through this on a lazy afternoon.
The book is divided into three parts.
Creation: This section discusses the motivations behind creation, monetary and otherwise, as well as the costs of creation and how they are affected by copying.
Yours and Mine: Here, Aicher writes about the morals and ethics of piracy and other copyright infringement, saving the strongest sting for those who, according to Aicher, build businesses on the back of infringement.
The Future: Finally, Aicher discusses the current legal and market situation and how it may affect creativity in the near future.
The second section of the book is by far the longest, with the third being just one short chapter long, thus making most of the book closely focused on the ethics of piracy, including both the participatory culture created on the Web and the temptation of free works.
Legally, the book focuses by far most of its energy on the DMCA, specifically the notice-and-takedown regime. However, Aicher has taken the view that the system has enabled companies to abuse the law to build businesses on the back of infringement while claiming safe harbor.
All in all though, the book avoids delving too deep into the law, you’ll find no citations of famous cases or legal opinions. Instead, the book draws its rather lengthy references section primarily from news articles and other books, including many listed above. There are even a few Wikipedia entries cited, even though that might not be the best source of information for a book to be treated seriously.
But even with the at-times wonky citations, the book does an overall decent job talking about the issues of creation, copyright and ownership and avoids nearly all of the pitfalls other books fell into.
The Good
What makes Aicher’s book stand out is one word: Balance.
In almost every regard, Aicher’s book manages to straddle the line between two pitfalls without veering of course. For example, though Aicher includes anecdotes in his book, including how he used to run a BBS for sharing guitar tabs in a previous life, the book never feels like an autobiography, unlike Helprin’s book. Though there is a great deal of research and citation, it never feels like a stuffy academic paper, like Lessig’s work can at times. Finally, even though he has sharp feelings on the the issues, he refrains from insults and even admits that everyone is trying to think of the artist’s best interest, unlike both Keen and Helprin in their books.
All in all, the book takes an incredibly even keel. No insults, no excess of academia, no nostalgia. Aicher clearly wants his book to be approachable and read by those who disagree with him and works hard to introduce conflicting opinions and rebut them gently. Though his arguments may not be anything earth-shakingly new, the tone and the way they are presented is very refreshing.
On the whole, Aicher’s book is very well-written and easy to read. It manages to float through the topic of copyright smoothly and comfortably. Much like a ship going through an ocean, it doesn’t merely skim the surface nor does it sink into the depths. Instead floats just deep enough to avoid drowning and takes the reader on a three-hour tour of the copyright issues, without winding up on a deserted island.
The Bad
Though the book is, overall, a solid work. There were a few issues I took with it.
For one, though the book’s brevity is not, in and of itself, a strike against it the book’s third chapter is painfully short. At barely ten pages, the discussion about the future would seem to me to be the most important part of the book, the natural climax of the previous sixty. In fact, one could almost call the previous sixty pages a great introduction for a weightier book about the future of copyright and creativity but, just as the discussion gets truly interesting, the book abruptly ends.
Also, there were also a few minor errors in the book. One example is on page 44 where he refers to the Pirate Party as being anti-copyright and seeking to abolish copyright. However, all Pirate Parties, including Sweden’s, to which he was referring, simply favor extreme copyright reform, in this case reducing the term to five years and making non-commercial file sharing legal.
Another error was on page 61 when Aicher said that the law did not require that DMCA takedowns be filed by either the copyright holder or a designated agent and that such a requirement was the creation of Web hosts. That is simply not true. Section 512(c)(3)(vi) states that a notice must including the following:
A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
In short, if you submit a DMCA notice and you are not either the rightsholder or an authorized agent, you are committing perjury. Red flag takedowns are an unrelated issue that have all but been done away with in recent court decisions.
These errors are relatively minor and at least somewhat understandable given the angle Aicher is taking with the subject, but they serve to misstate the current copyright situation ways that are fairly vital.
Still, the technical details of the book play a fairly minor role in the work and the meat of the book is more about the broader issues. There, the book is solid and, even the parts I disagree with, I’m forced to admit that Aicher makes his case both compellingly and entertainingly.
Bottom Line
I want to recommend this book but I am unsure about who to recommend it to. If you’re reading this site, you probably are familiar with the back and forth of the copyright debate and have heard these arguments before, if not pondered them yourself. If you are interested in the copyfight, you either already agree with him or have your counter-arguments lined up already.
This best audience for this book is, in my view, people who have only a passive interest in the copyright debate. It’s a short, quick read that doesn’t lose even the most lay of the laypeople. It is akin to a tourist visit in the copyright wold, a horse-drawn carriage ride through the pro-copyright side of the argument. It sacrifices depth for breadth and quickness and that makes it approachable and at least somewhat useful to those with but a passing interest.
Unfortunately though, this audience isn’t likely to seek out this book or know to look for it. Even if they were given a copy, I doubt many would read it. Your casual file sharer or person that just doesn’t think about copyright isn’t going to sit down and read a book on the subject, even if they can get through in the time it takes to finish a bottle of wine.
Still, if you are interested in copyright you can do a great deal worse than Aicher’s book. Though far from perfect, short and not ground-breaking, it’s a good book to have on your shelf and considering that a paper copy is only $9.95 and a Kindle copy $4.95, it’s cheap to own and takes almost no time. Just don’t expect to be blown away or have your views changed.
It may not change your life, but it certainly won’t make you regret reading it.
[thanks to jonathan bailey via cc]
Book Review: The View from the First Chair by Martin L. Grayson
In his book “The View from the First Chair: What Every Trial Lawyer Really Needs to Know,” Martin L. Grayson defines a trial as follows–
[N]othing less than a six-dimensional merry-go-round-jigsaw-puzzle-demolition-derby all playing out in your mind while you sit relatively passively at counsel table, trying to concentrate on 12 things at once while listening to witness testimony.
This passage gives you the sense that Grayson knows what he’s talking about and is going to tell it to you with a certain amount of wit.
Grayson wants you to think of his book as “a virtual mentor for attorneys.” It’s filled with the type of tips you don’t get in a typical trial manual. Examples: a chapter titled “Thinking on Your Feet,” a chapter on the proper uses of email, and a chapter on communicating with clients. These chapters are written and organized in a way that invites you to read the book from beginning to end, rather than skipping around from issue to issue.
Other highlights–
A how-to for finding the best experts (“most attorneys have no idea how to find well-qualified experts,” says Grayson);- Useful tips for settling cases (“settlement is about psychology and rhythm; the numbers are just music in the background”);
- A technique for dealing with abusive counsel at depositions (“98 percent guaranteed to change the entire tone of the proceedings,” according to Grayson–and I think he’s right).
Throughout the book are sidebars containing the author’s real-life litigation stories. Although the book is slanted towards defense lawyers, I’d recommend it to any type of litigator who lacks significant trial experience.
[thanks to evan schaeffer via cc]
Black’s Law Dictionary Apple iPhone App: Price Is Too High
If you work in the legal industry and you’re an iPhone or iPod Touch user, you’ve probably picked up on the fact that Black’s Law Dictionary is now available for the iPhone or iPod touch. You may also be aware that West released the new application at a price of $49.99.
This post is not intended as a feature review. For that, I suggest you link on over to Jeff Richardson’s iPhone JD blog for his comments which went up this morning.
What I’m curious about is the price point chosen. I think it’s too high, and not because West doesn’t deserve to make a profit. In fact, I think they’ve missed profitability equation on this new product entirely. Let me explain why.
As Connie Crosby points out in the comments on this Slaw post, a firm that spends a couple hundred dollars on legal dictionaries isn’t going to increase their budget to thousands just because we are now able to tether a digital copy to a smart phone. If you price the print edition and iPhone edition the same, you are inevitably asking for comparisons to be made. It forces an either-or decision.
That’s not what West wants (or at least not what I think West wants…). The goal should be to avoid media format competition at all costs; especially when the possibility exists of selling their IP twice, once in each format.
West could have skipped the whole ‘firm budget’ equation and moved this purchase into being a personal expense just by lowering the price point below $30. Had they lowered the price to a discretionary level, many lawyers would skip the firm paying altogether and picked up the bill themselves.
The key, I think, is to create new non-competing markets. West is far better off, both short and long term, with $25 apps on every lawyer’s smart phone, over shared copies of print products. Any firm out there, even a two-lawyer operation, will logically make the decision to resource share when possible – thus reducing the number of purchased copies. This part’s simple math – create the demand for a lower-cost personal edition, and you create a larger & more lucrative market. Moving shared product purchases to personal product purchases is just good business for West.
But equally important to the profit equation is to not let digital content – iPhone apps included – exist only for business consumption. Lawyers are also consumers, and individual purchases made outside of work will be a growing market for legal publishers – but only if they are priced low enough. Price it too high, and the personal copy becomes a questionable decision.
Additionally, if law firms aren’t picking up the tab, they will still see value (for the short term) in keeping a few print copies around. For West, that means an opportunity to sell the same content in multiple formats. It also means the original print market isn’t disrupted by forcing it to compete for the same purchase dollars.
Group subscription pricing models will inevitably come along, but when is difficult to say. Until that time comes, however, legal pubishers like West are simply missing out on a window of business opportunity.
[via vancouverlawlib]
