Info, Law, IP & Ethics

© is the copyright symbol

There is an interesting debate over the purpose of copyright being highlighted in many popular blogs. Last week Matt Yglesias wrote a blog post on the struggle of RIAA against free content. Yglesias says:   “It is, of course, possible that at some point the digital music situation will start imperiling the ability of consumers to enjoy music. The purpose of intellectual property law is to prevent that from happening, and if it does come to pass we’ll need to think seriously about rejiggering things.”

 Sonny Bunch at America’s Future Foundation website responded to Yglesias:  “No! False! The purpose of intellectual property law has very little to do with Matt Yglesias being able to enjoy a wide variety of new music. The purpose of intellectual property law is to protect the intellectual property created by artists so they are rewarded for their efforts. The purpose of intellectual property law is to punish people who steal that which isn’t theirs.”

The question here is:  Is the purpose of copyright protecting and rewarding the artists or promoting arts and sciences? Should it benefit creators or consumers?  Bunch vehemently argues that it should benefit creators and they should have a “right to profit from their labors”. He accuses people downloading free music of theft!!!  I am not pro-piracy and I agree that artists should be rewarded.  But I think that he completely forgot the bigger purpose of copyright law which is “progressive society”.  Aren’t artists making enough money as it is? The ultimate purpose of any kind of law is to help mankind progress but not to help specific groups make ridiculous profits out of everything and anything. I think the copyright law should benefit society at large and absolutely disagree with Bunch. What do you guys think about this debate?