![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The writer strike in Hollywood and the Danish politician who has admitted that she has downloaded illegally and pointed out that when something like 85% of a generation (according to her anyway) does so, then it is the law that needs to be changed, well, I suspect them both of being to blame for the fact that it occurred to me the other day that you could make a perfectly fine argument for it being theoretically impossible to download illegally in Denmark.
The argument? To make it as short as possible: Media licence.
Right, I suppose I'll have to explain a bit more. In Denmark we have something called media licence. It used to be ordinary television and radio licence, but since 1. january this year it has been a bit more. Basically, if you possess a television, a radio, a computer with internet access or a cell phone with the ability to show movies, then you have to pay media licence (which pretty much means everybody, unless we have any Amish in the country). Mind you, it's not a tax. Oh no, not a tax, because the government loves its "tax stop". Nevertheless, you must pay - to DR, the national public service station, that provides 2 television channels and some radio stations, as well as some stuff on the internet.
The argument? To make it as short as possible: Media licence.
Right, I suppose I'll have to explain a bit more. In Denmark we have something called media licence. It used to be ordinary television and radio licence, but since 1. january this year it has been a bit more. Basically, if you possess a television, a radio, a computer with internet access or a cell phone with the ability to show movies, then you have to pay media licence (which pretty much means everybody, unless we have any Amish in the country). Mind you, it's not a tax. Oh no, not a tax, because the government loves its "tax stop". Nevertheless, you must pay - to DR, the national public service station, that provides 2 television channels and some radio stations, as well as some stuff on the internet.
It's the internet part that's important here. Apparently, if you can possibly do something (in this case not own a television and watch their programs online, thus not having to pay licence according to the old scheme), then you automatically have to pay for the opportunity, whether you choose to take it or not. (Of course, according to this logic, everybody going online should already get punished for illegal downloading, because they can potentially do it, but that's a rant for another day).
Now, let's consider DR. As I said, DR is the national public service station. Public service. A strange concept. After all, first it assumes that there is such a thing as the public, as if the public is one big group - a very strange idea. I mean, just look at the political polls that are all over the place. People are planning to vote for everybody from Pia to Asmaa, how can they ever be thought of as a whole?
Now, consider what they assume this public needs for service. DR has a contract with the ministery of culture, so that's pretty easy to find out. Apparently the content of public service is as follows: news (nevermind that other sources, including other television channels (TV2 News anyone) and those free newspapers that can be found on the public transport are also fullfilling such a need), Danish drama (what, their one big television series a year is supposed to do this - and remember, they wind up on dvd if you ever want to see it (lousy dvds, no or minimal extra materials) and can usually be found at the library), Danish music (which doesn't explain why only 2,5% of new Danish music finds its way to the radio stations), European television (well, sure, if you like reruns of British mysteries), culture (well, sometimes), sport (sorry, but they have pretty much given up on this, due to their current financial troubles), educational programs (all right, I admit they occasionally send an interesting documentary, but only very occasionally), and children's programs (which they are pretty good at, actually, but that's neither here nor their since I'm not a child nor planning to have one).
To sum up, public service seems to be about providing a lot of stuff that you can get elsewhere, and precious little that anybody with any type of specialised interest might want. In short, they aren't providing the public with the service they might reasonably expect. Not that they care. Everybody still has to pay the media licence - about 400$ pr. household pr. year - for the privilege of even daring to own anything vaguely hightech. And then you can pay even more to get other television channels or to your internet provider.
Failing to provide public service means, of course, that people will have to go find their desired materials elsewhere. Of course, having to pay media licence seriously diminishes anybody's ability to do so by way of the currently legal venues (I'll save the rant about time delays and programs that never make it to little Denmark for another day).
Now, my argument basically is, that being forced by the law to give DR a lot of my money, they are in turn obligated to provide me with something that matters. When they fail so to do, I should be legally allowed to do whatever is necessary to acquire the desired material, while DR should be held financially responsible (not that DR knows what financially responsible means...)
This is my somewhat clumsy argument. Alas, I doubt the powers that be are going to buy it. Oh well, I like it anyway...
Still, the current system of copyright and licence and so forth, well, it really needs some form of overhaul. A serious overhaul. We're supposed to live in globalized world and supposed to love the internet, but certain systems are, well, outdated...
I think downloading programs for free should be legal. Period. As legal as loaning a book at the library.
Of course, the artists should still get paid. But actually, there are already reasonable systems to do this. See, in Denmark we have Koda and Gramex, two organizations that make sure that musicians get paid when their music is played in the radio, and Copydan, which takes care of getting makers of educational stuff used in schools recompensed for all the copies taken of their stuff. Also, there is a system of Danish culture support commonly referred to as "the library money". This is money given to Danish authors, translaters, etc. based on how many copies of their works is kept at the libraries. Note that this is not a payment made by the libraries for the right to lend the materials to people, it is an independent cultural support calculated on the basis of this.
So, what I basically propose is that there should be a system set up to handle the recompensation to the creators, as well as legal venues for downloading that would make it easy to calculate how much everybody should get (maybe something along the lines of www.bibliotekernesnetmusik.dk.) The money? Well, partly I would suggest that the media licence got turned into an actual media tax (which conveniently would vary according to income level, unlike the media licence). Also, I find it interesting that today, if you buy blank cds or dvds or usb flash drives, then part of the price is sent to the above-mentioned organizations - because, well, what do you use blank dvds for? They aren't stupid, you know... Finally, the government could damn well take some money from somewhere else - if they have enough to spend on stupid military spy planes that never manage to actually fly, then they can damn well afford this.
Before you start saying that the state shouldn't pay for culture, then I'd like to point out that it already does. Almost no movies in Denmark are made without considerable financial contributions from the state. Theatre tickets would be considerably more expensive than they already are if the state didn't support them. Movie makers, actors, authors, musicians, etc. get educated for free and with SU, same as doctors and teachers. The state runs or contributes to most mayor museums. Public grants of various sizes are an important way for many artists to survive, because they sure as hell can't make enough to afford salt on an egg. This is a small country, my friends. Without the state, culture would be a lot more dull.
Of course, I imagine all sorts of cross-national problems with this system. Still, it would be nice - and a place to start, if nothing else.
Now, let's consider DR. As I said, DR is the national public service station. Public service. A strange concept. After all, first it assumes that there is such a thing as the public, as if the public is one big group - a very strange idea. I mean, just look at the political polls that are all over the place. People are planning to vote for everybody from Pia to Asmaa, how can they ever be thought of as a whole?
Now, consider what they assume this public needs for service. DR has a contract with the ministery of culture, so that's pretty easy to find out. Apparently the content of public service is as follows: news (nevermind that other sources, including other television channels (TV2 News anyone) and those free newspapers that can be found on the public transport are also fullfilling such a need), Danish drama (what, their one big television series a year is supposed to do this - and remember, they wind up on dvd if you ever want to see it (lousy dvds, no or minimal extra materials) and can usually be found at the library), Danish music (which doesn't explain why only 2,5% of new Danish music finds its way to the radio stations), European television (well, sure, if you like reruns of British mysteries), culture (well, sometimes), sport (sorry, but they have pretty much given up on this, due to their current financial troubles), educational programs (all right, I admit they occasionally send an interesting documentary, but only very occasionally), and children's programs (which they are pretty good at, actually, but that's neither here nor their since I'm not a child nor planning to have one).
To sum up, public service seems to be about providing a lot of stuff that you can get elsewhere, and precious little that anybody with any type of specialised interest might want. In short, they aren't providing the public with the service they might reasonably expect. Not that they care. Everybody still has to pay the media licence - about 400$ pr. household pr. year - for the privilege of even daring to own anything vaguely hightech. And then you can pay even more to get other television channels or to your internet provider.
Failing to provide public service means, of course, that people will have to go find their desired materials elsewhere. Of course, having to pay media licence seriously diminishes anybody's ability to do so by way of the currently legal venues (I'll save the rant about time delays and programs that never make it to little Denmark for another day).
Now, my argument basically is, that being forced by the law to give DR a lot of my money, they are in turn obligated to provide me with something that matters. When they fail so to do, I should be legally allowed to do whatever is necessary to acquire the desired material, while DR should be held financially responsible (not that DR knows what financially responsible means...)
This is my somewhat clumsy argument. Alas, I doubt the powers that be are going to buy it. Oh well, I like it anyway...
Still, the current system of copyright and licence and so forth, well, it really needs some form of overhaul. A serious overhaul. We're supposed to live in globalized world and supposed to love the internet, but certain systems are, well, outdated...
I think downloading programs for free should be legal. Period. As legal as loaning a book at the library.
Of course, the artists should still get paid. But actually, there are already reasonable systems to do this. See, in Denmark we have Koda and Gramex, two organizations that make sure that musicians get paid when their music is played in the radio, and Copydan, which takes care of getting makers of educational stuff used in schools recompensed for all the copies taken of their stuff. Also, there is a system of Danish culture support commonly referred to as "the library money". This is money given to Danish authors, translaters, etc. based on how many copies of their works is kept at the libraries. Note that this is not a payment made by the libraries for the right to lend the materials to people, it is an independent cultural support calculated on the basis of this.
So, what I basically propose is that there should be a system set up to handle the recompensation to the creators, as well as legal venues for downloading that would make it easy to calculate how much everybody should get (maybe something along the lines of www.bibliotekernesnetmusik.dk.) The money? Well, partly I would suggest that the media licence got turned into an actual media tax (which conveniently would vary according to income level, unlike the media licence). Also, I find it interesting that today, if you buy blank cds or dvds or usb flash drives, then part of the price is sent to the above-mentioned organizations - because, well, what do you use blank dvds for? They aren't stupid, you know... Finally, the government could damn well take some money from somewhere else - if they have enough to spend on stupid military spy planes that never manage to actually fly, then they can damn well afford this.
Before you start saying that the state shouldn't pay for culture, then I'd like to point out that it already does. Almost no movies in Denmark are made without considerable financial contributions from the state. Theatre tickets would be considerably more expensive than they already are if the state didn't support them. Movie makers, actors, authors, musicians, etc. get educated for free and with SU, same as doctors and teachers. The state runs or contributes to most mayor museums. Public grants of various sizes are an important way for many artists to survive, because they sure as hell can't make enough to afford salt on an egg. This is a small country, my friends. Without the state, culture would be a lot more dull.
Of course, I imagine all sorts of cross-national problems with this system. Still, it would be nice - and a place to start, if nothing else.