"You and I are consumers, but can you remember the last time you voted for a 'consumer representative'?"

That's the first pull quote CNET News.com used from an op-ed of mine titled "File-Sharing Battles Leave Us Out." I think the notion of what's best for consumers is critical, but there are too many people who want to tell them what's in their best interest.

In the CNET piece I chose as an example Public Knowledge, not because I dislike the people there -- quite the contrary -- but because to me it's a classic case of a well-intentioned group that lost its way in its effort to benefit consumers. They agree with the 9th Circuit's decision in Grokster, and are willing to let millions of unauthorized downloads occur in the hope that legitimate services will dull the appetite for free content. To me, if the downloaded content is comparable, free will be preferred every time, so you can't just keep calling for new business models.

Do I know what consumers want and need? Absolutely not. I work for a think tank -- if I could predict consumer desires I'd be an entrepreneur. (That would be a sweet life.) But by my way of thinking, I don't need to know what the consumer wants. As long as there is a free market of legal goods with differing benefits and multiple price points, each consumer can make his or her own choice. I feel the omnipresence of free content prevents the emergence of other choices. If I were a venture capitalist, I certainly wouldn't invest capital in a digital downloading service until I saw the piracy threat diminished.

Those in the Free Culture Movement profess to favor free markets, and I don't believe they are being disingenuous. Public Knowledge's Mike Godwin makes this claim in a recent blog entry in which he excoriates a previous blog entry of mine. (My favorite part is when he accuses me of creating an "oddball world view"; I love it!) The question becomes how a market is defined. My colleage Tom Lenard in the most recent Regulation Magazine takes Larry Lessig to task on this point, arguing he misinterprets Ronald Coase by suggesting he advocated that one must consider abandoning property rights each time a market is assessed. (Lenard accuses Lessig of "practicing economics without a license"; I plan to do a separate blog on Lenard's piece soon.)

Some in Washington want to protect consumers from harm not yet committed, as in the case of those advocating net neutrality rules. Others say that if the digital age permits you to easily obtain and manipulate content, one should be free to do so, regardless of copyright law. My colleague Jim DeLong rightly asks what incentive content creators have to apply their creativity in such a "market." It's a reasonable question.

I don't have all the answers for consumers. But I want them to have choices, and I know that in a market economy that means multiple providers competing to find the right balance of features and price points, with intellectual property respected. The consumer electronics industry, which also defends Grokster, sees this kind of market fight every day, and it leads to companies like Apple offering new computers and iPods to compete in new price categories. I assure you Apple and its competitors fiercely protect their patents. The same existing rights should be respected for producers of creative content.

The ancient Greeks gave us a great word, hubris. Unfortunately one of their greatest thinkers, Plato, demonstrated hubris when he sought to mold a philosopher king. Plato, like many great thinkers, believed he had answers others would never grasp. On a smaller scale, I see that attitude in the Free Culture Movement. If you've ever witnessed a discussion in "The WELL" you know what I'm talking about. It's a patronizing approach to life and the Internet, as self-appointed guardians of cyberspace argue amongst themselves about how our world should be. There's no debating these types, because any argument you make will be dismissed as beneath their intellect. So be forewarned that I will continue to tilt windmills on this subject, and I'm sure will be called all sorts of creative names in the process.

posted by Patrick Ross @ 10:48 AM | Free Culture Movement

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