Intellectuals' Crazy Property

This article is in many ways a response to and article I just read on The Culture of Ownership website. The article was titled "What does Web 2.0 owe you". I have been waiting for the right thing to fire up my intellectual property rant and since I haven't listened to any Buzz Out Loud lately this will do.

I highly suggest you read the article to gain a better understanding of what I, in a non-linear ranting state of mind, am about to pound on my keyboard about.

Basically, Bebo.com, a social networking site (very popular outside of the United States) was just purchased by AOL for somewhere around $600,000,000. That's quite a bit of money. There are evidently some people who believe that some of this money should be distributed to the musicians who had their music on the site and helped it get popular.

As much as I believe artists should be fairly compensated for the work that they create and rightly own, but with ownership comes responsibility. The owner of the content has the responsibility to determine how and where it is used. In the case of Bebo my guess is that the music on the social network was put there by the artists. I would also guess that the artist did not pay to post the music there. I would also guess that the artist agreed to a terms of service for using the website and posting the music. Oh, and I would also guess that the artist got publicity from posting those tracks. What does this mean?

1. Artists, and all of us, need to look at Terms of Service. When we sign up for accounts on websites we may be giving rights to the people who run the website. We should also be aware that even if we delete this information from the website, the owner of the site may still be able to keep a copy.
2. We don't need to own and license everything. I understand artists live by making money off of their music, but I also understand that they don't always have to monetize every play. Sometimes you make more money when you give things away.
3. In this world we need to realize the power of the consumer and the power of content. In the case of social networks, people are their content. Point: Developing a content rich website is in itself what people go to. If Bebo hadn't done things right, artists wouldn't have posted there. Artists only posted on Bebo because they saw value. What value? Lot's of consumers asking for things to buy.

I have much more rant in me, but the fingers are tiring and this is most likely boring some. If not post your own rant reply. Till then, come check out our new Facebook group.