Legislation is inherently anti-innovation

Filed in archive Commentary , Government , Society & Public Policy on June 14, 2006

Or Why legislation is bad, and bad legislation worse

Fred von Lohmann and Wendy Seltzer write Death by DMCA. The legacy of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) is clear. Piracy was not materially affected but products and entire consumer electronic categories were. They were put out of business, not by the free market, not by competition, not due to inferior offerings, but by the heavy hand of ill-aimed legislation that protected large companies and not consumer or innovation.

The article concludes "Copyright is being turned from a limited-term incentive designed to encourage creative artists to a broadly scoped transfer of wealth from the public to the private realm. As the industries that generate copyrighted materials seek control over not only their works but also the devices on which we watch, listen to, and remix them, copyright law is turning into technology regulation."