Copyright is not part of the value chain and in many cases acts to stifle innovation. For example an on-going European Court of Justice case (referred from the Swedish Court of Appeals) will determine whether publishing a hyperlink to content (without the author’s consent) can be considered a communication to the public, and therefore implicitly a breach of creator’s copyright (it is already considered illegal in France). In this context it is easy to see how copyright represents an impediment to value creation.
Nevertheless it would appear that many creators do not seem to care, judging from their enthusiasm for sharing and uploading their work (for example 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every hour). Indeed it would seem that creators are not waiting for new business models to be finalised or copyright reform to be implemented – they just getting on with it. The opportunity of sharing creative content with others remains a primary and powerful motivator for a large number of Internet users. In this context, the use of crowd-funding and advertising revenue are key routes to successful monetization. However, the proliferation of the advertising driven revenue model will have implications and consequences for privacy, surveillance and ultimately protection of the public interest.
