The Electronic Frontier Foundation has become "as radically polarized as the entertainment industry, and like Hollywood are now working against the interests of those they were meant to serve." This is because "it appears that the EFF believes there should be no copyright." But copyright provides incentives for creativity, and in taking their anti-copyright position, EFF isn't aligned with computer users, many of whom are creative, but "with the financial interests of the electronics and software industry."

That isn't me speaking. That's Dave Winer, who says he gave $5,000 when EFF first launched fifteen years ago. He has the requisite credentials for membership in the Free Culture Movement -- former contributor to Wired, a research fellow with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, etc. He writes that he has supported every EFF cause since that first donation, but "that's no longer true" because of EFF's "radically polarized" view of IP. In a CNET piece in January, I discussed my early admiration for Public Knowledge and how I welcomed its intention to strike a balance in the copyright debate. (Unlike Winer I didn't donate to PK, but as a journalist who sought objectivity I never donated to any cause I covered.) I wrote that I had become disillusioned by PK's polarization, and was eviscerated by the Free Culture Movement for expressing my personal disappointment. Surprisingly, despite the you-read-my-blog-and-I'll-read-your-blog network in the Free Culture Movement that celebrates every IP setback and sees even the most trivial argument repeatedly cross-posted, Winer's comments have echoed as much as that proverbial tree falling in the forest.

Because I feel Winer raises important issues, I'm providing a forum here. I suspect he wouldn't have chosen this site to be the home of his discussion, although I would argue that I too seek to resist radical polarization on both sides of this debate, and I welcome him to the rare landscape of the middle ground. But with at least one rare exception, Winer has been ignored. If the Free Culture Movement truly is one of ideas and intellect, why the reluctance to debate the possibility that EFF may not be representing everyone it claims to represent?

Part of EFF's problem, of course, is that like all self-described consumer groups, it is self-appointed. If the folks at EFF -- who seem to be bright, well-intentioned people -- have one major flaw, it is hubris. They believe they know what is best for the great unwashed computer-user masses out there. (If they have a second flaw it is inflexibility, but I can be inflexible when I truly believe in the superiority of my position, so it would be hypocritical for me to fault them there.)

Winer is one of the computer users EFF claims to champion. He engaged in a lengthy e-mail exchange with EFF Chairman Brad Templeton over his concerns, yet that dialogue left Winer so dissatisfied that he felt he had to let the world know, through his blog, just how far from reality EFF had drifted. I will say what I've said before -- I have no idea what's "right" for consumers, computer users or otherwise. I do believe the market allows consumers to state for themselves what is "right," and I believe no market can function without respect for property rights. Until EFF starts holding national plebiscites, I will continue to maintain the market is the best representative body for consumers. Sometimes self-described consumer advocates actually trust consumers in a market, as did one yesterday on the Hill; I wish that happened more often.

This blog is aimed at the Free Culture Movement, but I don't think they really choose to listen to anything I have to say. So I think I'll conclude with the words of Winer, to whom they should listen:

The problem with the EFF position is that in order to remain consistent, they have had to say that copyright doesn't exist -- if a policy or law restricts what a user can do on the Internet then that is a bad policy or law. The courts can't agree with the EFF. I don't agree with the EFF.

posted by Patrick Ross @ 2:29 PM | Free Culture Movement

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