Intellectual property and the new eminent domain

On the renegade frontier that is the Internet, how much longer can anyone own anything? If you haven't heard the stirring voices of the Web proletariat demanding the redistribution of wealth for yourself, you soon will.

On one level, there are your bastions of e-commerce: Amazon, iTunes, eBay. But those increasingly seem to be the few isolated islands of legitimate capitalism in a violent ocean of finders/keepers entitlement to ownership.

Many of the most common types of Web thievery are known to the general surfer. These include music piracy (MP3 sharing), movie hacking and peer-to-peer exchange, and password cracking to lay claim to password-protected content of any type. The convenience of digital media and the seeming anonymity with which one can steal stuff has given the practice the momentum of a runaway train.

But on the fringes of that battle between hackers and security phreaks (which has generated an entire industry or ten amidst that conflagration), lies a more disturbing mindset. One that seems to fester and grow deep within the Web milieu. That is, can anyone ever really own anything digital?

This is on top of mind with me today as we fired another volley in the decades-long battle that is agency source file ownership. Ad agencies have traditionally retained dominion over their source art as a means of ensuring future work and residual income. Back in the day, this was actual artwork and printing film in a non-digital world where graphic artists armed with x-acto blades and type galleys and printing strippers were the wizards of commercial arts.

Then came the digital revolution. The initial shock and awe that the Mac brought to advertising kept its mystique for years. No one questioned file ownership. Then, everyone had a computer. And the software got cheaper. Then the software got easier to use. Then the hardware got more powerful. Then the peripherals and accessories let virtually every mom and pop with even a modicum of skill produce "professional" results. (Or gave them enough glossy satisfaction to sustain the illusion.)

In that evolution, several things happened in advertising. One of the most corrosive effects has been that services that once held high perceived value have been mentally cataloged as "should be cheap." Logo design is one of the most violated victims. These days it seems only the big megalithic branding agencies can still pull off charging tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars for a worldwide brand logo. Some still manage to mediate usage licensing. But for the rest of us (and NOT just agencies our size), logo design has been reduced to the realm of "my son has Photoshop" or "I can get the kid up the street to do this for $50."

If this devaluation was contained solely to logo design, that would be one thing. But most print-based disciplines are held in relatively low-regard. While, ultimately the quality of the creative determines the efficacy of a piece, and many clients understand that, the act of integrating that creative idea into a physical layout is perceived as able to "just be thrown together quickly."

Back in the day (which I've actually been in the business long enough to witness "the day", which tells you how quickly the change has occurred), clients didn't demand source files from you. You said, "source files are ours, film and plates belong to the printers." End of discussion. That changed rapidly. Now, the prevalent theme across the board from clients is "I paid for it, I get all source files." Sometimes, if confronted, they do an end around and say "I just want a copy in case your building burns down or you go out of business." While that's a legitimate concern for some, for others it's a way to refuse being denied "their files."

Increasingly, the only recourse for agencies like us it to give it the old college try and then bend over and grab our ankles.

What's the harm in turning over source files, you say? Well, it screws agencies out of recurring revenue, reveals to many clients the "secret sauce" in the way you build things, and ultimately exposes your portfolio work to being corrupted by clients who think they're designers. So you lose jobs, teach your clients how to do things only you know how to do, and have them turn your pride and joy to crap which can ultimately reflect poorly on the agency when a project is left to mutate under the amateur eye of its new owner.

In our experience, some Web work and much interactive/video work still holds relative mystique. Many clients pay good money for it, and some don't demand ownership of files. Most of the time it's because they don't have video editing software, or know how to use Flash. But, the new YouTube-loving generation does. And it's only a matter of time until they start giving away the farm.

And that's a big fear about the whole future outlook...it's about free content. While that is often liberating and seems like the free market at its finest, it really isn't. It's virtual anarchy.

When I was in college, I worked in a copy shop for a few years. One of our big offerings was to create photocopy packets of class notes. Teachers would request them between semesters and then we'd sell them to students at the beginning of each session. During that time, Kinko's got the crap sued out of them for photocopying copyrighted materials for class notes. I recall us awaiting the verdict of that watershed national case and the impending fallout. Kinko's lost big time, and soon enough, new policies started trickling down to us. Before we could photocopy any book, we required signed documentation from the teachers, the textbook publishers, their mothers... It even became illegal for us to photocopy a book that a student brought to the counter. I seem to remember that we could only photocopy four pages, or something like that. When we'd turn disbelieving customers away from the counter, we'd point them to the crappy coin-operated, self-service machines and turn the other cheek.

Now I look back, and that was just a portent of the challenges to intellectual property ownership. In the height of the Napster brouhaha, Metallica sued the Internet darling and champion of Web surfers' "rights" over their distribution of unreleased material. Seems someone had a digital recording of one of the band's demo tracks (or unreleased recordings) and they immediately began sharing it via the Napster service. It spread like wildfire and Metallica sued, claiming it was losing future revenue from a track that never had the chance to be sold first. The hard-ass band and counter-culture sweetheart was then cast in a light of money-grubbing sellouts by many of the fans that chose to embrace the vigilante pathos of the Web rather than appreciate (and compensate) the band for their hard work.

The world was in the throes of change.

Now, iPod package warnings claiming "don't steal music" are as pervasive as "smoking causes cancer" badges on cigarette packs. YouTube (or GooTube as it's now affectionately called in its acquisition post-coital bliss) is constantly challenged on the legality of the videos its users post. Fox is going after it for posting the season premiere of "24" on the site hours after the show first ran, hoping to preserve sales of its DVD set that came out the weekend after. In fact, it is strange that the DVD set of the first two episodes literally came out days after the premiere. Usually they wait until the season's over...now it seems like they're accelerating their marketing. I'd venture to say it's them trying to cash in before the footage is all pirated and ubiquitous.

The very nature of YouTube being free and (currently) a non-revenue-generating entity seems counter-intuitive to its purchase price of $1.5B. You can be sure Google has ulterior motives, but on the surface, it seems weird.

People pirate copies of all the Microsoft apps, trying to "screw Bill". Almost the entire Asian continent peddles pirate software and movies, inspiring Hollywood to run those pathetic trailers of the poor gaffer who can't feed his family because little Jimmy Chan is ripping copies of "Saw 3" illegally.

But even as I type that and make light of their plight, it reveals how insidious the mindset is. I don't like Hollywood for all its excess and left-leaning agendas. I hate paying $12 for a movie ticket...it's obscene. So when those trailers come on, I, like dozens of others in the theaters, make some smart-ass comment about it. "Tough shit, dude" is the dominant sentiment. But just because I don't like Hollywood doesn't give me the right to steal their work.

Just because most of the world hates Microsoft doesn't give them the right to dupe copies of Windows. The open source movement would like nothing better than to devour everything Gates has begot. Then, without an enemy, it'll turn upon itself and burn Linus Torvalds-headed penguin dolls in effigy.

It's like the world is seething with an anti-establishment rage. People hate WalMart. They hate the government. They don't want to pay for music or movies. Even the encyclopedia business has been thrown to the Wikipedia dogs. As soon as people find a way to pirate free cell phone transmission, you'll see chaos like you've never witnessed before.

It's a creepy scorched earth mentality.

Someday, I still intend to write a book. Maybe two. While I'm interested in the exercise and inherent reward of doing it, I won't lie, I'd like to make some money off the deal. But I'm leery about the environment in which I'll find myself. Is conventional publishing next on the Internet chopping block? Blogging itself is a bird flipped at the mainstream media just as user-generated video is a nose thumbed at the networks. Will anyone buy books anymore? Books themselves are endangered as a physical form. When they go all-digital, I think the days of the "million copy bestseller" are over. You'll be lucky to sell 10,000 copies legitimately before people start emailing them back and forth like so much rubbish junk mail.

I look at how wedding photographers are increasingly succumbing to the pressure to release master files...no longer able to hold negatives hostage. Printers, having gone direct-to-plate digital, no longer retain the metal plates they used to store as leverage for reprints. And now I see how ad agencies like my beloved Binary Pulse are forced to confront the same challenges.

Yes, everything changes. The rate and amount of change invoked by the Internet continues to fascinate me, and I largely think it's all for the good. Certainly, it's more exhilarating than being stagnant. But I can't help but feel like the world is destined for an uncertain future in which commerce may look very different. I can almost foresee a kind of electronic bartering paradigm emerging. Money won't seem so important when you can steal everything digital for yourself.

If content is really king, we'll need to create items of rare and unique value as a medium of exchange.

Maybe the first short story I write will be offered as payment for the latest Mac OS.

People will paint portraits for a legal copy of the Lord of the Rings movies.

And maybe you'll really be able to get anything for a song.

Full service freedom

OMAHA, Neb. — The Terror-Free Oil Initiative is planning to open the nation's first "terror free" gas station in Omaha.

The Florida-based group claims U.S. dollars used to purchase gas made from Middle East oil funds terrorism. It urges Americans to only buy oil products that originate from countries that do not support terrorism.

The Terror-Free Oil station in west Omaha will sell gas from oil companies that do not do business in the Middle East. Signs calling for the use of non-Middle Eastern oil were up at the station today.

Spokesman Joe Kaufman says the station will open Feb. 1, with a grand opening scheduled for Feb. 12.

Other Terror-Free Oil stations are planned.

I applauded 7-11 a few months ago when they elected not to renew their contract with Citgo based upon that company's association with Hugo Chavez. The timing of the press release was particularly exquisite...coming just days after the dim-witted socialist strode around our country calling Bush 'the devil.' Hey, Venezuela, enjoy socialism. Come talk to us in five years after nationalized industry fails miserably and your kids are whoring themselves on the streets for a peanut or pack of Juicy Fruit. I really want the opportunity to ask, "Government by decree. Yeah, how's that working out for ya'?"



I love it when corporate advocacy takes on more than just sponsoring a local park or funding college scholarships and grabs the bulls by the horns. Let's stop tip-toeing through the politically correct tulips and cut to the chase: We need to adopt alternative fuel sources that abandon dependence on foreign oil with cheetah-like celerity.

Overhaul the infrastructure, subsidize the conversion to hydrogen, do whatever it takes, but let's drown the oil mongers in a pool of their own crude. I realize some of those mongers wear ten gallon hats and say "y'all" way too much, but if it takes bankrupting one of them for every fifteen sheik counterparts, I say 'game on'. WalMart's always hiring anyway.

But since you know the U.S. will be blamed for all the escalated suffering in the Middle East after the oil industry goes kaput and unemployment skyrockets, we need to pave the way for real peace in the region. Since all Islamic Fascists fall back on the Palestinian crutch at one point or another and turn their wrath toward Israel, here's the key first step to domesticating the region: Israel, get the f&%k out of the Middle East!

I gotta tell you, I'm not sure what you see in the area, Israel. I'm sure it's very lovely at certain times of the year when the mortars aren't flying and the car bomb wreckage is cleared, but here's my advice. Pack the bags and buy a freaking island or ten in the South Pacific. Seriously. Take the entire country on holiday.

Sure, you'll have to hear how the Palestinians won, how the Zionist pigs were finally defeated, how Allah's work was done. I know you'll have to cope with the guilt, the regret, the feelings of self-doubt. But trust me, it'll only be for a few decades. For about two months after you leave, all the various Middle Eastern tribes will march around the streets, pumping their angry fists, shooting their angry guns and doing their angry dances. Then, they'll stand at the edge of town like Chevy Chase in Vacation looking out over the Grand Canyon. They'll stand with their arms around each other, nod briefly and say, "Wow, great" and get back in their cars.

Without the imminent enemy in their midst, most of the Fascists will let their tribal ways percolate to the surface. Their unified hate of Israel will first be redirected at the U.S. But we'll just look at them from our solar-powered houses and give them a shrugging, "What're you all pissed off at US about? You got your Holy Land. Have fun!"

Then they'll look at each other. One Ayatollah will push another imam who'll shove another insurgent who will put a knee to the Grand Poobah's groin. Without the focused, manufactured rage against Israel, they'll be forced to fight it out amongst themselves once the hate they have for each other is finally revealed.

Then we'll say, "Welcome to the game, boys. We were at this point back in 1861. Why don't you go out back and play." They'll beat the snot out of each other for five or ten years and maybe, just maybe, they'll realize that the mindless, obscene hate they project upon everything is a f*#king carcinogen. It defaces all the true beauty of what can be a peaceful religion.

Sit down at the table. Don't bang your fist at us and we won't rattle our sabre. Don't shoot your guns in the air and we won't fund coups. Don't call me an infidel or start a jihad and we won't occupy your country. Don't tell me your prophet thinks I'm unfit to live and mine won't either. In fact, let the prophets have a millennium off, huh? They have to be tired after all the twisting to our wills we've forced them through.

At that point, once all the Fascists are exhausted and lucid, maybe they'll look up and see how insane they've been. Israel can move back in, tanned and relaxed after its Polynesian exodus, and we can all sit down to a few beers and watch a ball game (just not soccer). I can show them my iPod and they can tell me what all the hubbub about falafel is about.

The 60s, 70s and 80s had their Commies; the 30s and 40s their Nazis; the 5th Century its Huns. The Islamic Fascists are the Vandals of the 21st century. Somewhere, someone's always pissed off.

Like a book I once read postulated, our violent ways could be a result of the fact that we're all made of combative organisms. There's warfare at our cellular level...white blood cells fighting off infections, viruses planting IEDs to take out antibodies, plaque staging violent protests within our arteries. With each of our bodies fighting endlessly -- day-in, day-out -- it's easy to understand why we're all prone to getting so friggin' cranky.

I don't know about you, but I can only be really pissed for a day or two and then I just want to take a nap.

Let's give it a rest, eh?

Working like a dog

Lorne Greene: Come here, Drew! (Drew runs up to Mr. Greene, looking up, panting) That's right, old boy. (pats Drew's head gently)

(c/u of Drew's face)

(Cut to wide shot of Mr. Greene placing dish in front of Drew. Drew begins eating hungrily.)

Lorne Greene: Old Drew here's been with Binary Pulse for eleven years this month. But with his schedule, that's like 33 to you and me.

Drew: Woof!

'Pinch' me, I'm dreaming

On the knuckles of one hand is tattooed "H-A-T-E" for my hate of cell phones.

On the knuckles of the other hand is tattooed "L-O-V-E" for my love of everything Apple.

Today, my hands came together in a welcoming embrace of the iPhone. In one of its archetypical PR blitzkreigs, this one seemingly overshadowing the entire CES affair, Apple used the annual MacWorld forum to once again revolutionize an industry. Apple Inc (the Computer has officially been dropped from the company name, symbolizing its position as a consumer electronics company) announced its much-anticipated foray into the cell phone space with the iPhone. Frankly, if a cure for cancer were announced today, it would probably have to be satisfied with page two coverage.

I'm starting to sound like a lame regurgitation of all the press coverage I've been reading today, but I'm that excited by this product. While the price is exorbinant, and the world will undoubtedly wait to see if performance lives up to the hype, the iPhone seems to have the potential to be a paradigm shifter. It embodies the convergence not only of so many technologies and applications, but it also marks the infusion of Apple's enlighted approach to user interface into a space horribly deprived of elegant solutions.

After the announcement, not only is every executive at every cell phone manufacturer losing sleep tonight and wondering if it's time to sell their stock, but Bill Gates is probably preparing to eBay all his surplus Zunes now that its minor competitive advantage of the horizontal screen just got one-upped with the the auto-rotating, "accelerometer"-invoked iPhone LCD.

If you haven't looked into it further, enjoy these links:

Apple iPhone site (be sure to watch the demos)

If you have an hour or so to kill, watch the Steve Jobs iPhone Introduction.
I'm not sure how long it will be up, but it's worth the time.

If you do watch it, you'll understand the relevance of the 'pinch' reference. Good God, it's cool. Frivolous, but cool in a Minority Report sort of way. (Hint, you'll first see it in the second phase of the speech about phone features, when Steve talks about the Photo Organizer. It's at about the 33-minute mark. I personally love the "no way" moan from the crowd as Steve Jobs implies what the pinch is, and then the shock and awe when he demonstrates it.)

Apple Computer is dead. Long live Apple.

Hitting the 2007 ground running

Yes, my friends, I am still here. I realize December, despite being extremely eventful, was a pretty lame blogging month for me. To be honest, the very fact that it was so eventful is partially to blame. After a thrill-ride end to the work year, I am now getting on top of my Webmastering obligations.

The first order of business is to get Christmas photos up. I have just completed this task. And you can view the results here.

I put the entire month's worth of photos up in one feature. Yes, partially because I'm lazy, but also to give you a sense of what a whirlwind it was. We had a simply spectacular month and I feel quite proud we packed in as much as we did in light of my ridiculous workload.

Still, it went by too fast and 2007 is already coming fast and furious. It's going to be a great year, though, I'm confident. Once I recommit myself to JabberDrew, I'll tell you all about it. In the meantime, enjoy the yuletide one more time.

Peace.