Are We Watching the Redefinition of Intellectual Property?
by
on May 26, 2008,
Who owns what?
There's a battle going on right now, and it's spreading to every possible domain: what exactly IS intellectual property, and who owns it? In an era in which copyright protection is seemingly extended indefinitely, a la the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, corporations are seemingly trying to prevent anything from ever entering the public domain, while consumers growing ever more enamored with the idea of free.
In the software industry, you have the opposing sides of over-zealous patents versus Open Source software. The movie industry and music industry are both fighting file-sharing and musicians willing to experiment with free music giveaways and set-your-own-price models. And online we have the increasing argument over intellectual property when it comes to content.
Bloggers are, essentially, writers, just like any other. Yes, the editing may not be as precise, the tone may be less formal, and the form may be much shorter, but we are writers nonetheless. And while few go to the trouble of registering copyright, they should, and Sarah Bird at SEOmoz has excellent advice for doing that for the constantly updated format of a blog. And we accept that bloggers own the content that they create, even if they do see it scraped by splogs on a regular basis. But who owns the comments?
User-generated content is rapidly approaching a very murky area. Blog owners generally retain the right to delete comments, as do owners of other types of sites. But they really don't own the content, do they? The people who created the content, be it comment or video, are the rightful owners. But as some bloggers still resist the fractured commenting taking place on sites like FriendFeed and Shyftr, claiming that the conversation is rightfully theirs. Purely from an intellectual property standpoint, they obviously don't, but the fragmentation is frustrating and nearly impossible to keep track of for bloggers.
Now, however, with the addition of all these social sites for commenting, the ownership struggles are becoming more and more apparent. When some bloggers became frustrated with the amount of comments being made on their blog posts on FriendFeed and deleted their accounts, ALL of the comments on threads they "owned" were deleted, regardless of who had made them. In the FriendFeed schema, the owner of the item apparently owns the comments.
I'm sure that the bloggers in question aren't too upset about it, since they didn't like having the conversation there in the first place. But did they own the content of those comments? Conversations naturally fork; should they be deleted along with the accounts? As a blogger, I may not like having conversations everywhere, but I recognize that I don't own any conversation. I don't own what people say, and because I don't own it, I can't control it. But as we push this envelope into shapes unlike the traditional one, are we changing what intellectual property is and who has the rights to it?
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Shyftr is spelled with a Y, not an I, but the point is still the same.
The issue of moving conversations is interesting here in 2008, but I assume it’ll be a blip when we look back on it in a couple years, as systems get integrated, and those married to the old way warm to the new way. But change is hard for everyone.
I have obviously been a huge proponent of both FriendFeed and Shyftr and will continue to be so. They are conversational platforms, built in interesting ways. Before people write scathing responses, they should just… breathe.
I agree with Louis on this. The conversation do become fragmented, but there are benefits to that fragmentation.
Bloggers definitely don’t own the conversation, but I think we will see more ways to integrate these “outside” comments into our blogs for those that want to try and keep things centralized.
There is already a plugin to bring your FriendFeed comments into your blog, and I’m sure it will be to the benefit of other services seen as fragmenters of conversation to at least provide an API that allows the same type inclusion.
I don’t mind the content of my blog taking of and I think most bloggers would feel differently about this if there was some way track the content.
It would be quite cool to watch your posts take of over the internet (mine usually hang around the neighborhood :-)). This is actually possible in RSS 2.0, with a simple tag. Just needs to be implemented. David Winer posted about this but I’m to lazy to find the post
Viral comments, an interesting topic. So far when a comment is started on a blog but ends somewhere else, a link or title still shows it’s origin. For how long will that be?
As a blogger, I found the fact that all the commenting about a post was done on FF somewhat disconcerting, but then I found the FF/Wordpress plugin, and all was resolved. Now that I can see both sets of comments, I don’t mind as much. So, it’s not really a matter of where the conversation is occurring, it’s just the lack of tools for content publishers to track that and re-incorporate those convos back to their blog if desired. If discussion is occurring around a blogger’s content, it’s nice to provide blog readers an easy way to see what’s being said…at least until the whole world moves to FF, that is.
(Also, shoutout to Yacktrack)
Another point - I don’t think any bloggers really think they “own” conversations, but you have to remember that for many years, the number of comments on a post was a big determining factor in how popular a blog was. That’s a hard thing for some people to let go of.
As much as I love the services we have today, the fact remains that you have to be uber-connected to see everything that’s going on and being said. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s worth noting that it’s a huge change from the way it was before (as you have just now) and one that does not necessarily benefit the casual web surfer/blog reader……hmmm….who might not care anyway, now that I think about it….
@Louis Thank you! I think I have a mental block when it comes to their name, because I get it wrong every single time I type it. At least I’m consistent! I do think that the web is evolving, but I’m not sure this is the future. As many have pointed out, FriendFeed is, essentially, a BBS. Twitter is pretty much a replication of IRC. What’s new? There is an ebb and flow where things become more scatttered (the web vs. IRC and Usenet, for example) and then they pull in again.
@Rahsheen There is a plug-in for ONE blogging platform to pull in comments from ONE external source. That doesn’t help the folks using Blogger or Movable Type (or Profy!) with the issue, nor does it pull in notes from Google Reader or comments on Shiftyr…
@Jomas There are tons of ways to track it, from Technorati to filtrbox (my new favorite) to Google Alerts. The problem is that the tracking effort takes a LOT of time to manage.
@Solacetech Check out FriendFeed and see just one shard of the fragmentation!
@Sarah Imagine if it’s someone who isn’t uber-connected who never sees comments on their blog, yet an entire conversation springs up on another service about points made in a post. How would you ever know anyone cared? And while the comments here are focusing on blog comments, it’s everything, from music to movies. The idea that someone owns their ideas and the expressions of them is downright offensive to people who believe that music should be free and software should be free and why should anyone get paid to write anything at all? The conversation fragmentation is just dovetailing into an overall idea that everything should be free and distributed.
I’m not sure I totally understand the analogy of comparing conversation fragmentation to movies and music and everything being free. There’s “free” and there’s “distributed,” and while sometimes these things can occur together (via P2P, for ex!), I’m not sure there’s a monetary value as to whether comments are on or off the blog…..unless I’m just totally misunderstanding what you were trying to say there?
But what I’m really hung up on is the value of FF discussions to a blog’s visitor. By moving conversations off-site because “conversations are freeeeeeeee”, there is a disservice being done to those who exist outside our tech bubble.
Think, for example, about someone who blogged about their 10 favorite Firefox extensions. While the blog may show 0 comments, a FF discussion will probably have several people interjecting their own favs. Is this not of value to the web surfer who just downloaded Firefox and did a Google search for more info which landed them on this blog post? That’s why we need to provide the publishers with tools to bring the conversation back to the blog, if desired. It’s not about who owns what - it’s about who we’re writing for in the first place…the world? Or just each other?
@Cyndy Aleo-Carreira The fact that this plugin exists means that it’s possible for plugins to exist for all other blogging platforms and web2.0 apps. It’s just a matter of supply and demand.
I don’t know much about Blogger, Profy or Moveable Type, but I’m pretty sure these features would become available if the demand for them was there.
@Sarah The reason that I tied them all together is because much of the mentality is the same in each instance. There seems to be an idea gaining more and more traction that if something CAN be digitally distributed, no one should be able to own it.
As for what you are saying about comments, I completely agree, and it’s still one of my main problems with FriendFeed. I’ve made no attempt to hide my dislike of it; I’m there because I feel that I HAVE to be there working in this industry, but I don’t have to like it. Juding by the number of threads ON FriendFeed that are ABOUT FriendFeed, I think you might have your answer about who everyone is writing for.
@Rahsheen The fact that the plug-in exists means ANYTHING is possible. But it makes things more difficult. Plug-ins for WordPress are a unique CMS method that other platforms don’t share, so it isn’t as simple as porting it over to another platform, because they don’t use the same architecture. It’s like the difference between Firefox and IE: You can’t use all the same nifty plug-ins with IE that you can with Firefox because that’s now how IE works.
@Cyndy Sorry, I wasn’t suggesting they have anything to do with each other. I was simply saying that the fact that someone could make a plugin for Wordpress means it’s just as simple to create something for another blogging platform. I guess since I code things from time to time, it sounds a lot simpler to me than others.
The only roadblocks would be web 2.0 apps that don’t have an API or interface of any kind or blogging/CMS software that does not have a decent plugin system.
Why is a plugin needed? If FF was a good citizen, it would use the already existing mechanisms for this: the TrackBack. It’s been around for years and all of the platforms support it, so why can’t FF just use it?
It’s sick how much the Web 2.0 crowd talks about talking and how to talk… Don’t you all have anything better to do? You know, like coming up with a revenue model for this crap?
@Rahsheen But you are basing that assumption on the idea that all blogging platforms are architected to use plug-ins in the same way that WordPress self-hosted is, and a few lines of PHP will solve all the problems. That isn’t how they all work, which is why it isn’t that simple.
@Grendel There you go again, assuming that people wouldn’t WANT to reinvent the wheel. That’s just silly talk. Web 2.0 is bound and determined to do everything NEW and BETTER. That’s why we need to build a whole new Data Portability standard instead of joining an existing standards group or forking some existing protocol like SyncML. You really are showing your age.
I’ll email Svetlana and let her know to turn off TrackBacks, since they’re obviously passé…
@Grendel Everything online isn’t about a revenue model. People used to blog and share information just for the hell of it. It’s the individual’s job to figure out how to make money off of it.
@Cyndy Movable Type, Wordpress.com, self-hosted Wordpress, and probably others have an obvious plugin system. For others, it’s going to take some complaining from their users for them to add features. This does not make things impossible. Maybe a little harder, but not impossible. Some platforms are just not Blog 2.0 compatible yet. I assume the developers of these other platforms do actually listen to their user base.
I came up using the Linux operating system instead of Windows. When you needed a particular type of software in Linux that didn’t already exist, you coded it yourself. You made it work. Because of this type of mindset, Linux is now on the shelves at Best Buy and such. This is my mindset when it comes to anything computer related.
Maybe I’m showing MY age, but WE tell software what to do. Even as just a user of that software. If it doesn’t do what you need, you need to use something else.
@Grendel: Looking forward to seeing that email in my inbox
And seriously, given the latest trend (see the important announcement from Allen Stern http://www.centernetworks.com/impt-message) even the blogging itself is obviously passé as well so we all should just drop this whole blog and move it to FriendFeed completely.
Another problem that I am personally having with moving the conversation to FriendFeed from the comments right here is that Cyndy’s post over there got some kind of attention from at least 30 users there (likes, comments) while our stats shows that only 20 of them actually clicked through to read it here. Am I missing something or does that mean that some of them just click Like or leave comments without actually reading?
If your book publisher pulls your book from the shelves without your authorization there’s no copyright infringement going on (although there may be some kind of contract breach). If a random publisher starts publish your book without your authorization, then there is copyright infringement.
Deleting comments is the same thing, You are the publisher, not the copyright holder, and you don’t have any obligation to actually publish the comments.