E-portfolio: Should We Need Permission to Speak the Facts? Max Rausch

Alright, let's get the obvious stuff out of the way right now. First, print is going out of style, and most people are getting their news off the Internet these days. F***ing duh. Second, the industry is still (rather feverishly) trying to figure out a new business model to appropriate the change, just as the music and book publishing industries are. If you don't know this already, there is not enough space in this post, nor enough time in my day, to catch you up.

While anyone who uses the Internet semi-regularly would be basically aware of this awkward transitional phase, you would be forgiven if some the particulars escaped you amongst the deluge of arguing tech pundits and aimless paranoia to be found online. You should know that tonnes of news is accessed via search engines like Google and even social networking platforms like Twitter and Facebook. You may not know how desperate professional journalists are to control access to those facts.

According to this article from Ars Technica, Laura Malone of the Associated Press appeared before the American Federal Trade Commission arguing for controlled access to professionally produced stories, including the necessity of licences to distribute news content form the Associated Press. The implication is crystallized in the article's headline: someday soon , you and I might need to buy a license just for the right to retweet news stories on Twitter or post them on Facebook.

Malone's statement was actually a reaction to comments made by Harvard professor Yochai Benkler. Ars Technica quotes him as saying: "You want to live in a permissions system that facts are permitted? Facts...should be as free as the air to common use. We do not have a permissions system for breathing."

That's the dilemma for all working journalists: the right to earn money and recognition for your work versus an allegiance to free speech and open conversation. Hopefully we won't be forced to choose, and the new model (when someone finally figures it out) will suit everyone's needs. That'll be one hell of a "Eureka!" moment.

Image taken from here.