Free Ride by Robert Levine

Over the last ten years, a large number of digital organisations have made their fortunes on pirated or aggregated content, which they have distributed for free without investing or re-numerating those who created that content in the first place. But why has this been allowed to happen? What are the implications of this cultural free-for-all? And how can the current situation be fixed?

DOES INFORMATION REALLY WANT TO BE FREE?

In his meticulously researched book, Free Ride: How the Internet is Destroying the Culture Business and How the Culture Business can Fight Back, Robert Levine - an ex-editor of US music magazine, Billboard - argues in favour of the content-creator, who, he says, will almost certainly die if things continue as they are because "how can any company compete with a rival that offers its products but bears none of the expenses?"

The creation of quality culture needs artists, says Levine. It also needs people, whether they're in the publishing, music or newspaper business, to nurture and pay those artists. Culture, it follows, is expensive, but this clashes with the idea, coined by the technology thinker Stewart Brand, that "information wants to be free."

Does information really want to be free or has this idea been used to suit the ends of the dark overlords of Silicon Valley, whose businesses depend on this being the case? Focussing on America, Levine dissects the business decisions, deals and irresponsible (and lack of) legislation that have eroded copyright and allowed technology companies to hold traditional media industries to ransom over the last ten years. It makes for a fascinating read and highlights how unprepared traditional creative industries were for the digital revolution, not to mention legislators, who seem constantly to trail behind new technology and underestimate its power.

IS IT TIME TO PAY UP?

We have had a long free ride but are now at a watershed moment, says Levine, who sees the cheapening of culture as an inevitable result of free distribution. If we wish to avoid "cultural meltdown," he suggests making personal copyright infringement an enforceable minor offense; creating a blanket licence, which "would add a fee to Internet connections" and "divide up the money to compensate copyright holders for the use of their work"; and forcing technology companies to take responsibility for the acts of their users.

These are not new ideas but as newspapers such as The Times and Sunday Times start charging for content online, publishers such as Macmillan take on sites like Amazon and we once again place a value on quality, it is timely and relevant to raise them again. Afterall, nothing good in life comes for free.

Publication details:
The Bodley Head
£18.99 now £17.09
Buy from Random House Books

Emily Jenkinson

12th September 2011