Back to the Future of the Internet: The Printing Press

Transcription

1 V Back to the Future of the Internet: The Printing Press Ang, Peng Hwa and James A. Dewar Introduction It is a truism that the Internet is a new medium with a revolutionary impact. To what can it be compared? Might an apt historical analogy help in illuminating the destiny of the Net? The printing press, which created the world s first truly mass medium, is a good analogy (Dewar 1998). This contribution summarises the findings of a gathering of experts on the potential impact of the Internet as seen through this analogical lens. 10 Government Intervention Policies lag technology. Intuitively, this makes sense; problems caused by technology are what give rise to policies. In the case of printing, governments in both Europe and China adopted laissez-faire positions regarding printing and publishing even when printers published vituperative propaganda against foreign governments. In China, as late as the 17 th century, there were no printing regulations. Printers brought out books that portrayed rebels as heroes. In Britain, the Crown granted printing licences to the guilds. There were no licensing fees because the government did not regard the nascent printing industry as a source of revenue. In fact, private individuals gained little financial benefit by writing. Only when governments were directly threatened or challenged did they react; even then, typically, it took a lot to provoke a response. In contrast, modern governments are significantly more interventionist. Paradigm Change in Intellectual Property The modern copyright regime evolved over a hundred years from the late 17 th century in Europe. In England, chaos reigned in the printing industry as printing licences lapsed and publishing moved overseas, out of the reach of the English Crown s jurisdiction. There were arguments that authors should not have their works protected. After all, if an author could be content after producing one creative work, what incentive was there for more? New technology is again challenging an extant paradigm of copyright and a similar rhetoric of paradigmatic crisis is being evoked. In England, intellectual property protection began with regulation by the guilds, which is a form of self-regulation. The Statute of Anne of 1709 turned guild regulations into civil law. Over the next three-quarters of a century, self regulation was replaced by the modern copyright law.

2 250 Before the 18 th century, European legal notions of property were typically confined to real (short for corporeal) estate and material objects. The evolution of copyright law augmented property law with the concept of intellectual property (incorporeal estate). Unlike other forms of property, intellectual property is not held in perpetuity. It is noteworthy that the current paradigm that emerged in Britain in the form of the 1774 copyright law was seen as counter to the interests of the largest concentration of capital among the stakeholders, the London book publishers. A concern about the ongoing policy process on digital era intellectual property rights is that there are too few voices against strengthening property rights. Copyright is a limited monopoly but a monopoly nevertheless. Too strong a regime in favour of rights holders disadvantages users in the short run and society at large in the long run. The policy lesson is that a focus on the process of new paradigm creation is more fruitful than theorising the form that that paradigm will take. The new paradigm will evolve gradually through a series of landmark legal decisions. The Napster dispute on the legality of sharing music files made possible by the technology is important in this context. Policy Opportunities Three broad policy areas where government might play a role in the intellectual property field are access, authentication and archiving. Access Governments historically in both Europe and Asia did not give much weight to access to printed materials. Only when education was deemed to be important for society did governments pay attention to the need for access to books. In both China and Korea, the more enlightened governments sent books to the counties. In China, the Ming dynasty sent printed Confucian texts, classics and philosophical books to every prefecture and county (Reed 2000). In the case of the Internet, the link to education has been made very quickly. Just as the printing press engendered literacy, the personal computer engenders digital literacy. Policies to promote digital literacy, therefore, are justified. Authentication The advent of printing did not immediately make scribes obsolete. Written texts were considered to be more true or authentic than printed texts. Part of this thinking is explained by Heidegger s (1982) notion of the connection of the hand and the word.

3 251 In Korea, it was widely believed that writing by hand, especially of religious materials, edified the writer (Kang 2000). The printing press was thus viewed with scepticism regarding its validity, legitimacy and even spirituality. The issue of authentication was most significant for letters of credit and paper money. Antifraud and anti-counterfeiting measures by governments were put in place. Similar government action will be required to alleviate fraud and counterfeiting in the Internet environment. Archiving There was concern historically that the printed page would not be as durable as the traditional vellum (treated animal hide) used in writing. Today, the concern is that the Internet leaves less evidence for historians (Sherman 2000). Just as technology has made it possible to archive paper, technology may well be developed to archive Net content. Implications for Governance and Markets Modern bureaucracy would not have developed without the printing press. Printing technology facilitated the development of codes and laws, which could be more widely disseminated. It also made possible the use of forms, or standardised ways of government-citizen communication. Although printing may have led to the strengthening of central authority, it also strengthened the rule of law. For the first time, citizens had easy access to the laws of the land. For example, arbitrary actions by tax officers were made more difficult. Similarly, it is likely that the potential of the Internet to make laws and administrative decisions more accessible may make government more transparent. However, the Internet could also lead to the strengthening of central authority. Printing increased the production of ephemera. However, it also lowered the price of books and promoted literacy. Pamphlets in the 16 th, 17 th and 18 th centuries spread political and economic ideas in Europe, laying the foundation for the Enlightenment. Ephemera may be the price to pay for the availability of materials on the Net. The printing press played both a unifying and fragmenting role. Printing standardised languages but also reinforced local dialects. Printing fostered national languages and contributed to the evolution of national identities. Similarly, the Internet is likely to lead to a greater standardisation of language. The Internet allows geographically dispersed minority groups to assert common identities.

4 252 The scientific revolution was enabled by postal communication. It allowed a more rapid exchange of ideas, as in the case of in recent times. Perhaps will be the biggest benefit conferred by the Internet. In 19 th century Britain, when the postal service changed from a luxury service with variable pricing to a universal service with fixed pricing, the volume of use exploded. Letters subsidised newspapers in the early days of the postal system. Newspapers were 85% of the postal weight, but only 15% of the costs. Similarly, the current Internet tax moratorium subsidises Internet ventures. Perhaps the greatest impact of the printing press on business was the standardisation of practices that previously had to be memorised or reinvented. In Europe, from the 16 th century onwards, there were many books describing how to run a business. The use of forms standardised business practices, thereby increasing uniformity and decreasing transaction costs. In Europe, double entry accounting was an important tool. Better information improved the chances of survival for businesses. Similarly, more transparency as a result of greater availability of information on the Internet may allow a better chance of success for viable business models. The printing press enabled goods and services to be offered at fixed prices. Historically, letters were full of questions about market prices in different regions. The Internet, with its ability to capture detailed information on consumers, allows opportunities to price discriminate. The online retailer, Amazon, has attempted to price discriminate based on the user s personal information and past purchases. New forms of media create opportunities for new advertising methods. Advertisements appeared in the early books; they were a revenue source. Publishers no longer have to insert advertisements in books in general, but it is unclear whether advertising will provide adequate revenues to support Internet businesses. Paper money was used in China from around the 10 th and 11 th centuries. It began with IOU notes but was replaced by silver when silver became widely available in the 1600s through trade. This is a curious quirk in history; for whatever reason, perhaps fraud, China regressed from paper money to metal money, instead of moving to lighter materials. Europe began to use paper money from the 18 th century. Like the Chinese, the Europeans began with IOUs and letters of credit, which gave rise to paper money. The history of money suggests that it will probably take some time to make digital money secure. Today, e-money moves through secure channels among closed user groups. This movement parallels the earliest use of letters of credit and IOU notes.

5 253 Diffusion and Commercialism The different diffusion rates of the printing press in Europe, China and Korea may be explained by factors such as the cost of capital or barriers to entry. Censorship was not a major cause of slower diffusion. To be sure, there was some censorship in Korea and China. In their attempts to build a Confucian society that maintained the status quo, kings and scholars printed books that advocated the Confucian order. In China, there were episodes of book burning and one king, Qianlong, conducted what is probably the world s most thorough house-to-house search for proscribed literature. However, both China and Korea experienced long periods of minimal censorship. The same Qianlong who conducted the search sponsored the breath-taking 36,000-volume, The Complete Works of Four Treasuries, in which 300 scholars summarised some 3,500 Chinese classics. In contrast, the printing industry diffused in Europe in the face of censorship. Commercialism expedited diffusion of both the printing press and the Internet. In Europe, mass demand for printed matter and opportunities for profit spurred the diffusion of the printing press. The early printers were the world s first capitalists (Eisenstein 2000 and see 1980). The contrast between China and Korea strengthens the argument: the printing press diffused more quickly in China because of commercialism. In Korea, there was no commercial basis for the widespread use of the movable type printing press (Kang 2000). The Internet took off when the dot.coms were allowed to develop. Concluding Comment Historical analogies have limits. Complex and intertwined variables make isolating the effects of printing difficult. This is also the case in attempts to isolate the effects of the Internet.