# a blog about things that I've been thinking hard about

# The "Copyright Debate" is not a debate. It is a moral chasm.

9 February, 2012
In the "copyright debate", morality actually matters more than anything else.
by Philip Dorrell

On the one side, there are the techno-geeks who know that there is something wrong with copyright, in a world where information can be copied from one person's computer to any other person's computer anywhere in the world at near zero cost.

On the other side, there is the "copyright industry", a loose term describing those whose income derives from the sale of copyrighted content.

One might expect an on-going public discussion about the costs and the benefits of copyright, and the costs and benefits of various possible methods of enforcing copyright.

But mostly this isn't happening.

The techno-geeks imagine a "new world", where copyright, in the sense of preventing "unauthorised" copying, simply becomes irrelevant. Instead of dwelling on how to "save" copyright from being attacked by the "uncontrolled" digital freedoms of computers and the internet, they prefer to dwell on how we can use those digital freedoms to make the world a better place.

The copyright industry, on the other hand, simply takes as given the existence of copyright as a natural and unshakeable moral proposition. Everything they say assumes this position.

This isn't a debate. It is a moral chasm.

It's a chasm, because there is no middle ground. You're either way on one side, or way on the other side

## Why is this happening?

The copyright industry is holding on to copyright as a pre-existing moral proposition, because that is all they have.

You might think that it is the power of money, or political corruption, or something else, that sustains the attacks on digital freedoms in the name of "protecting" copyright.

These things might play some role, but morality actually "talks" to ordinary people more powerfully than anything else. And politicians, no matter how selfish or corrupt they may seem, actually depend very much on public sympathy and support.

As long as those in the copyright industry continue to believe in the rightness of copyright, and frame all discussions about copyright and piracy within the context of that belief, they will continue to have the power to make copyright the dominant consideration in all situations where copyright might conflict with something else (such as the benefits of digital technology).

Also, something that is convenient if your side in the debate happens to be supported by a historically accepted moral proposition, is that moral propositions are very self-sustaining. What is right is right, and it's wrong even to suggest that it might be OK to do the thing which is wrong.

The downside of moral propositions is that they are all or nothing. If something is morally wrong, then it is always wrong. Like murder. Or theft.

You can't just say "I'm glad I've convinced you that murder is always wrong, but now, because I'm feeling generous, I'm going to let you murder other people sometimes".

So, once some substantial number people begin to even question the validity of your moral proposition, you are not that far away from losing it all together.

One thing about chasms, is that once you have decided that it's worth the effort to cross the chasm, and you cross it, it's likely that you will never cross back to the other side.

## In conclusion ...

Copyright, as an unshakeable moral proposition, may be closer to suddenly disappearing than anyone realises.

On the other hand, if there are battles that need to be fought right now, against the power of copyright and against those who campaign for extreme freedom-limiting measures taken to enforce copyright, those fighting the battles need to pay attention to the moral aspect of the battle.

And by this I don't mean paying attention to the specific wrongs of the things that specific actors in the copyright industry might do, or might have done in the past.

I mean paying attention to the morality of copyright itself.

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