The Law and the Profits

Below is my column from the August 2015 issue of the Sturbridge Times Magazine.

Copyright law protects artists from having their work used for free. It is an understandable safeguard for creative people. It is not, however, supposed to last forever. Eventually, music or literature and other works pass into what is known as the Public Domain and anyone can use or copy them.

Unfortunately, Mickey Mouse disagreed with that. Minnie probably did as well. Their empire, the huge corporation known as The Walt Disney Company, wanted to keep Mick, Min and other properties of the eponymous founder Walt, from passing into the public domain.

In 1998, with others, Disney pushed to get rights extended according to the copyright office circular from 50 years to the “life of the author plus 70 years and for works of corporate authorship to 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication, whichever endpoint is earlier.” Bill Clinton signed what is known as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act into law.

Winnie the Pooh et al are safe within the good old Disney stable as well as many other characters.

Well you say so what? How do we as American people suffer because a corporation gets to keep properties they have arguably done good things with?

What the copyright extension displays is the American system of crony capitalism. Disney is a huge entity, but it is not the biggest player in the American economy, yet Mickey and some other corporations easily gamed the system.

One hopes no one is naive enough to believe the citizenry rose up to demand that their elected representatives save cartoon characters from the vicissitudes of the free market. We can safely assume that no campaign funds were harmed as our solons served the national interest.

Crony Capitalism is hardly limited to the frivolous aspects of American culture. It transpires that the same legislature that handed over intellectual property policy is about to give away far more to powerful interests that dwarf the might of Disney.

Congress recently debated a bill without disclosing what was in it. The Trans Pacific Partnership or TPP is a vast proposal covering many aspects of trade, from digital communications to agricultural policy. It is Crony Capitalism raised to a power.

It's difficult to criticize because it's a secret to all but a few and they're not talking because they can't. Politico's Michael Wessel, as a cleared advisor, has got to see it, but can't say much. He notes, “The government has created a perfect Catch 22: The law prohibits us from talking about the specifics of what we’ve seen, allowing the president to criticize us for not being specific.”

As mentioned above, this is a bill encompassing many areas of the economy. Like most, some aspects interest me more than others. As an organic gardener, I have always avoided GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) seed. We do our best not to eat food grown from GMO sources. You may think me some goofy granola and that may be true. Still, people should have the right to know what they are eating.

In America, support has been growing for the labeling of GMO foods. Some states have laws to that effect and more are likely to. The trade agreement could short-circuit that, giving authority to international bodies. This is hardly surprising as the chief agricultural negotiator for the US is the former Monsanto lobbyist, Islam Siddique. Monsanto is the chief purveyor of GMO seed in this country.

Now, even if GMO seeds are not harmful in and of themselves, why is there such a struggle to keep them from being labeled? Should not we great unwashed at least have the right to our informed folly?

Being an average man, I do my best to be informed, but when it comes to science, there is only so much the layperson can know. It comes down to who do you trust. That's what we do in elections. From the results of most presidential contests, we tend to disagree within a few percentage points. In 2008 Obama was elected with a healthy 53% to 46%. Good, but not a coronation. He made a campaign promise in 2007 to require the labeling of genetically modified foods. Like presidents going back to the beginning of the Republic, he did not keep his word and is now full on for TPP.

Clearly, the 600 corporate advisors who have input into the agreement are having their way with the country's economy. The citizenry will not be consulted. The mere change of chief executive will mean little. Bush would have done the same thing and Clinton pushed NAFTA.

Maybe Bernie Sanders or Jim Webb would be different, but they are not going to get elected.

We have referred the question to our official think tank, The Long Hill Institute for the Study of Political Theater. We tasked them to find a reform to obviate the power of the few in economic matters. Alas, they could come up with nothing. As they opined before in this publication, there is no philosophers stone of government. They did note, the longer a nation lasts, more is centralized in the hands of a few. Their final conclusion, everything eventually reduces to its absurd.

Maybe it's just my paranoia, but it is impossible for me to disagree with Lily Tomlin, “No matter how cynical I get, I just can't keep up.”