Freedom Line Blog

Do America’s copyright protections stifle artistic innovation?

Obviously, that question answers itself.  After all, no nation in human history even approaches the United States in terms of sheer scale of musical, film and other creative innovation.  And that’s due precisely to our strong copyright laws that reward creativity and incentivize more.  Moreover, Americans’ ability to access a greater amount of artistic content, more easily, more cheaply and via more outlets increases daily.

Bizarrely, however, the contrary assertion remains regrettably fashionable even among some self-proclaimed “libertarian” and “conservative” circles.  Fortunately, voices of reason rebut the pernicious anti-intellectual property (IP) movement’s myths, and bring clarity to the debate.  One such voice of reason is Ben Sheffner, the MPAA’s Vice President of Legal Affairs.  In this abbreviated and this full-length debate video recently released, Mr. Sheffner clarifies the realities and refutes the curious claim that copyright laws inhibit innovation.  Quite the contrary, he makes clear, strong copyright laws not only preserve the fruits of creators’ labor, they incentivize the risk-taking and investment critical to spark additional creativity now and into the future.

Mr. Sheffner does an excellent job, and absolutely schools Derek Khanna multiple times on both the broader and finer points of intellectual property generally, and copyright more specifically.