Fluid Platforms and Singing Whales

Fluid Platforms and Singing Whales
There will be a theme for the next week or so. Disruption and Adjustment.

Before last week I had never heard of Ryu Murakami, but he’s at the center of an interesting case that may amplify the tremors of technology.

From Robert McCrum in the Guardian:

Earlier this month, in a manoeuvre I predict will soon be seen as a watershed, the admired contemporary Japanese writer Ryu Murakami announced that he was publishing his new book, A Singing Whale, in partnership with Apple, as an iPad download, turning his back on his regular Japanese publisher, Kodansha. The book will also include video content set to music composed by Oscar-winning Ryuichi Sakamoto.

So is there now a way to break a contract by shifting platforms?

Business Models Carved In Stone

We’ve been talking for a couple of decades about how everything will be 1’s and 0’s, and how great it will be when all data is digital. Guess what? We’re here. So why have book deals, contracts and the law been so slow to keep up? This has been creeping toward us, and we’ve been ignoring it.

Let’s say I am an author, and I have delivered on three of five books. I am precluded from publishing anywhere else until I fulfill those terms. At what point can I claim to be working in a completely different medium, that isn’t covered by the terms of my contract? It’s not like HarperCollins can distribute my videos – not in a cost-effective manner. Same holds true for software.

What if I decided to create an iPhone app, where you could pay a subscription to read my articles? That might be covered, if the product I deliver is something that could reasonably be rendered on a page. Yet when the content falls outside that capability, how can I be held liable for a creation the publisher can’t do anything with. They might as well claim ownership of the origami frogs I fold at the kitchen table, because they might be able to publish a book of those.

Murakami’s publisher has expressed interest in producing a hard-copy version of The Singing Whale. But what if the artist answers “When Pigs Fly”? More convergence and more blending will lead to art forms that defy traditional boxes.

Since the law should be as flexible and pliant as our medium can be, then we need to rethink the language that describes our authored works of value. Otherwise, publishers may find themselves like Ahab, on a futile quest to capture The Singing Whale.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download