Aaron Perzanowski on Bottom-up Creativity & the Right to Repair
Dec 1, 2023
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Professor Aaron Perzanowski discusses how artistic communities like tattoo artists and chefs flourish as commons without copyright protections. The podcast also dives into the right to repair movement and the challenges faced by repair-commoners. It explores the influence of social communities on property rights and highlights recent developments in legislation and industry response to the right to repair movement.
Creative communities like tattoo artists and chefs thrive as commons, without relying on copyright protections, fostering bottom-up collaboration and sharing.
The right to repair movement aims to ensure consumers' access to repair information and tools, challenging manufacturers' attempts at control.
Deep dives
Creativity without Law
The podcast explores the idea of creativity flourishing without copyright or trademark protection. Various creative communities, such as the tattoo industry, have developed their own informal rules to govern copying and innovation without relying on copyright laws. These communities have created a space for sharing and remixing traditional icons while still valuing originality. By recognizing the importance of common resources, creators can draw from a rich pool of shared knowledge to produce something new. This communal exchange is facilitated by strong individual property interests that enable cooperative behavior and informal norms to regulate copying and protect creative expression.
The Importance of the Right to Repair
The podcast discusses the growing movement of the right to repair, which focuses on consumers' legal right to repair the products they own, such as vehicles, electronics, and appliances. Manufacturers often restrict repair access through embedded software and software locks. This limits consumers' ability to fix their own devices or seek repairs from independent repair shops. However, legislation is being introduced in several states, including California, to ensure consumers' access to parts, information, and tools necessary for repair. There is bipartisan support for this movement, recognizing the anti-competitive behaviors and disadvantageous practices by manufacturers that undermine consumers' ownership rights.
The Battle between Centralized Control and Democratized Access
The podcast highlights the tension between manufacturers' desire for centralized control and consumers' access to democratized repair information and expertise. With the increasing availability of repair guides on platforms like YouTube and websites like iFixit, consumers have become less reliant on manufacturers for repairs. This has led manufacturers to employ legal and technological means to regain control over the repair process. However, consumers' growing ability to access repair information and engage in community repair activities, such as repair cafes, challenges manufacturers' attempts at control. Efforts to safeguard the right to repair include legislation, repair score labeling, and mandates for user-replaceable components.
Progress and Challenges in the Right to Repair Movement
The podcast highlights the progress made in securing the right to repair, such as the passage of legislation in California, Colorado, and Minnesota. Furthermore, European countries have introduced repair score labeling and mandated user-replaceable batteries. However, the fight for the right to repair is ongoing, and companies are making strategic choices to protect their interests. Apple, for example, has acted to avoid negative PR and shape legislation but is not seen as a staunch supporter of the repair movement. The challenges lie in addressing the multifaceted legal issues, including intellectual property, antitrust, and consumer protection, and ensuring that consumers' property interests are not eroded by proprietary concerns.
Professor Aaron Perzanowski of the University of Michigan Law School explains how many artistic communities flourish as commons, without copyright protections that privilege private ownership and marketization. Tattoo artists, fashion designers, chefs, and stand-up comedians are among the communities that don't strictly own their primary creative works. This ethic of bottom-up collaboration and sharing also flourishes in many repair commons, where resourceful people have created pools of shared knowledge and peer-support to fix broken products. Corporate manufacturers are trying to suppress the "right to repair" movement, but repair-commoners are making significant gains these days.
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