The Luddites broke up machinery that was transforming their (often dangerous and ill-paid) jobs into something that could be done by far fewer people, sometimes though not always in a safer way, and sometimes though not always turning tens or hundreds of low paid jobs into one better paid job.

When recording of music for mechanical reproduction (whether by recording instrument playing or soundwaves) was invented, musicians protested that it would destroy their means of earning a living by allowing one performance to be repeated many times. It also seriously reduced the number of people who know how to play and instrument or sing properly. Quite possibly the demand for music teachers plummted as well (no one ever talks about teachers losing their livelihoods because it’s not a glamorous profession). Just as we did not prevent the rise of the player piano, the wax cylinder or the vinyl disc, so too should we not allow the modern day luddites of the recording industry to control the development of new technologies. Just as the old music hall artists had to find new ways to make a living, so too must new business models make way for old. The recording industry tried to shut down radio and failed, only to later pay for airplay. The movie industry tried to stop the distribution of video cassette recorders and failed, only to later make more money from the sales of old and enw movies on cassette than they made at the box office. The music recording industry managed to shut down Napster and drove the file sharing systems into non-profit-making approaches. If Napster had survived it is likely they would have come to an arrangement with the recording industry to share their profits.

The TV and movie industry are going after youtube. If they succeed, they will drive video sharing the same way they drove music sharing. Instead of driving the development of a new market, whose profits they will share, they will remove moneymaking from the equation (if you’re visible enough to make serious money, you’re visible enough to be called to account). In this, at least, the music industry seems to have bowed to the inevitable and done deals with youtube’s new owner Google to get a slice of the profits in return for licensing their music, particularly for home video and amateur music video use.

The Belgian news company that tried to force Google News to pay ridiculous sums for deep linking only succeeded in reducing their traffic. As Larry Lessig has said, too many of these companies are run by lawyers who convince their business managers that they should control everything and be able to set their own prices, instead of competing in the market and finding new ways to make money from new ways of disseminating information. The sooner people realise the world has changed and start focussing on updating their business models, the richer everyone will be.