Gerd Leonhard Media Futurist / The Futures AgencyGerd Leonhard TheFuturesAgency @gleonhard MediaFuturist.com

The Future of Intellectual Property and Copyright

In a truly connected world, which ideas will still be exclusively ours?

In a truly inter-connected world, ownership can no longer remain as exclusive and as linear as before.

Image licensed from Sevensheaven.nl

The future is not about Protection but about Engagement

In digital-native media, ownership already has a radically different meaning

Our technology is leaping... but our laws are not

A disconnected society: Broadcast Culture

Control & Scarcity = MoneyIt used to be...

But in a connected world, almost everything we create will be a Remix

Source: nytimes.com

As creators, most of us don’t monetize ownership as much as we monetize audience -

it’s not about Protection but Attraction

However, as middlemen and industries, we monetize Friction, Scarcity, Timing, Packaging...

This is a wicked problem

Gerd Leonhard Media Futurist / The Futures Agency

Maybe ‘selling copies’ was just a window...?

Property = Paper Value = Embodiment

Scarcity = Money

Property: Device & Access Value: in AggregationScarcity: of Attention

The ‘More Locks’ approach: just being there will mean you are guilty

But consumers don’t accept ‘my way or the highway’ - schemes any longer

Source: Gizmodo.com

The balance is off.

Source: PaidContent.org

Attempts at increasing control while the world keeps getting more connected will fail spectacularly

A hyper-connected society: Broadband Culture

A world where data and digital goods drastically increase in value while many physical goods decline

Source: http://www.flickr.com/people/robot-vs-monkey/

And the copying won’t stop with digital goods....

We are headingWarp-Speed towards

Access & Usage Rights

Gerd Leonhard Media Futurist / The Futures Agency

The Future: Access and Usage, not ‘Copy’.

This is a development we can’t renegotiate

Gerd Leonhard Media Futurist / The Futures Agency

WIPO on the purpose of copyright: 1) Encourage a dynamic creative culture

2) Return value to creators so that they can lead a dignified economic existence

3) Provide widespread, affordable access to content for the public

Gerd Leonhard Media Futurist / The Futures Agency

Copyright 1.0: the Statute of Anne (UK, 1709)

Source: Wikimedia

Source: Wikimedia

How about a Statute of Tim? (Tim Berners-Lee aka TimBL)

We must re-think permissions and standards, strike new balances for a connected world,

and monetize usage & engagement - not copies

Source: Ars Electronica 2008

Gerd Leonhard Media Futurist / The Futures Agency

Let’s gather some of the

brightest people and

create a new “Statue of Tim”

Gerd Leonhard Media Futurist / The Futures Agency

www.mediafuturist.com @gleonhard