As a veteran professional journalist, I am a gut supporter of IP rights . . . if anyone is free to reproduce what I write, how am I going to get paid? This instinctive sympathy kicked in recently when I learned that aging rockers, including Paul McCartney and Roger Daltrey, stand to lose the copyright on their early performances. (The British government this summer turned down the performers’ plea to extend such protection beyond 50 years.) When it comes to counterfeit goods, I never give a second glance to sidewalk displays of “Louis Vuitton” and “Chanel” handbags.
But I got an eye-opening lesson on how my view is not shared when I perused the Internet before my interview with Rick Cotton, the general counsel of NBC Universal, which runs on page 25. As the leader of a multi-industry coalition, Cotton is urging the federal government to spend more on fighting counterfeiting and piracy. Cotton’s public remarks have been bandied about and ridiculed in the blogosphere on sites like consumerist.com: “You will NEVER stop me from infringing on copyright, and then posting how to do it on sites like this!!! Get a life NBC,” taunted one commentator. This brazen attitude toward downloading was kind of scary. Cotton’s group had better get going on its plans for public education.
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