https://www.techdirt.com/2026/02/13/copyright-kills-competition/
"Copyright owners increasingly claim more draconian copyright law and policy
will fight back against big tech companies. In reality, copyright gives the
most powerful companies even more control over creators and competitors.
Today’s copyright policy concentrates power among a handful of corporate
gatekeepers—at everyone else’s expense. We need a system that supports
grassroots innovation and emerging creators by lowering barriers to
entry—ultimately offering all of us a wider variety of choices.
Pro-monopoly regulation through copyright won’t provide any meaningful economic
support for vulnerable artists and creators. Because of the imbalance in
bargaining power between creators and publishing gatekeepers, trying to help
creators by giving them new rights under copyright law is like trying to help a
bullied kid by giving them more lunch money for the bully to take.
Entertainment companies’ historical practices bear out this concern. For
example, in the late-2000’s to mid-2010’s, music publishers and recording
companies struck multimillion-dollar direct licensing deals with music
streaming companies and video sharing platforms. Google reportedly paid more
than $400 million to a single music label, and Spotify gave the major record
labels a combined 18 percent ownership interest in its now- $100 billion
company. Yet music labels and publishers frequently fail to share these
payments with artists, and artists rarely benefit from these equity
arrangements. There’s no reason to think that these same companies would treat
their artists more fairly now."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
