Of Infringers and Barbarians

In today’s WSJ, Mark Helprin defends original creators of intellectual property. He writes:

Are you — were you — in publishing? Are you, or were you, a journalist? A screenwriter, composer, architect, designer, photographer, writer, or in a business that brings the work of these people to the public? What have you done to protect your life’s blood and to guarantee the continued independence of your voice? As distressed as you may be now or not long from now, should copyright go the way of all flesh, some of you may soon be unable even to recognize your own profession, if indeed it continues to exist.

It is rare for a writer, or anyone for that matter, to defend creative individuals from the liberal thieves who, as Helprin dully mentions, rationalize incessant cultural theft.

But copyright, the rampart of the mythical city, is besieged by a widespread movement antagonistic to authorial right and the legitimacy of intellectual property. So-called public interest groups serve the new information super powers, the Standard Oils of our age, whose interests would be advanced if they did not have to bother with permissions and payments for what they call “content.” The Creative Commons organization, for example, is richly financed by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Mozilla, Sun, the Hewlett Foundation, and others of type.

Although his poignant words are timely, one wishes Helprin would expend a bit more finesse in his attack so as to help establish, if not deliver, the death-blow to liberal thieves and infringers. Regardless, he makes the apt connection between the zero-sum game of real property and the abstract and amorphous property rights of the intellect.

Read Helprin’s WSJ article here.