In other words, the selfish obstinacy of the copyright industries, in their refusal to consider any approach other than yet more licensing, is likely to cause serious economic losses to Europe, alongside the cultural ones. Once again, we have a clear demonstration of how copyright maximalists are happy to harm an entire continent rather than concede that their scarcity-based approach is outdated and needs to be re-thought in a world of digital abundance. That the copyright industries should cling to this retrogressive approach is no surprise - it’s what they’ve done at every turn for the last fifteen years or more. That the European Commission still hasn’t learned its lesson from the street demonstrations against ACTA last year, and tries to shore up decrepit intellectual monopolies to the disadvantage of the 500 million citizens of Europe it supposedly serves, is not just extraordinary, but truly shameful.

Blog entry. Computerworld UK.