The retired director the Iowa Newspaper Association is proposing that a for-profit consortium of U.S. newspapers be formed to control copyright, access and use of digital content. Bill Monroe lays out his idea in this 27-minute talk to the second Midwest Newspaper Summit, which drew about 125 editors, publishers and business execuives to a Des Moines, Iowa, hotel on Thurs., Jan. 4, 2010. The critical operating principles, says Monroe:
- Respect for copyright laws an aggressive pursuit of violators
- Mutually beneficial royalties and profit sharing
- Historic preservation
- Efficient and effective newspaper participation
- Easy customer user access and
- Scalability to be able to help newspapers of all sizes.
Click on the carat on the left of the bar below to stream audio of Monroe's talk, or download an MP3 ppodcast for offline listening.
The problem with Bill Monroe idea is that it would require an army of lawyers to enforce, literally. It would also clog the court system with lawsuits over copyright infringement cases. The problem is technology has over taken the source and power for news and information. The only way to have a system work the way Monroe would like is to have every purchaser of technology buy a license that is tied to a clearinghouse to rake in the royalities for copyright uses via internet. If everyone is a potential news consumer, reporter, producer, director, etc, we are all nothing because of a system, so vast in size and scope, that is impractical and impossible to police and be held monetarily accountable.
Danny L. McDaniel
Lafayette, Indiana
Posted by: Danny L. McDaniel | May 15, 2010 at 03:13 PM