Jack Dorsey recently made a stir on the website he founded, formerly known as Twitter, with a terse statement: “Delete all IP law.” He didn’t elaborate, but others piled on, including Elon Musk and Senator Josh Hawley. The various copyright threats against artificial intelligence tools (32 lawsuits and counting) presumably are the impetus for Dorsey’s frustration. Eccentric tech billionaires aren’t the most sympathetic characters on the world stage at the moment, but copyright’s defenders (and I consider myself one of them) would still do well to take this frustration seriously. Copyright law is supposed to be a deal that benefits both the public and rightsholders; if the public feels it’s only getting the downside, while the rightsholders get all the upside, the bargain may fall apart. If copyright holders don’t want to “Delete all IP laws,” they should show a little more love for fair use.

Copyright defenders had a ready response to Dorsey et al.: deleting IP may enable free use of past culture, but a well-designed IP system ensures that creativity continues into the future. In a capitalist economy, if we want culture to grow, we have to give those who contribute to it some hope of a return on their investment. This is particularly true for complex works such as motion pictures. Even a low budget film requires a budget of several million dollars, money a production can only recover if it has the power to control (and monetize) the resulting film. If intellectual property puts “Delete IP” utopias of ubiquitous free use beyond reach, that’s a trade-off we accept in exchange for new culture. 

But as a part of that trade, the copyright system has to have built-in user rights to protect the public from damaging copyright excess. These limits to copyright power are essential to making the IP bargain serve the public interest. For example, rightsholders aren’t allowed to stop others from using facts and ideas, or taking inspiration from past works to make new works that add even more to the culture. Once an author has a fair amount of time to profit from their work, copyright ends. Most importantly, copyright protects fair use of copyrighted works—uses that don’t just offer the public copies or derivatives of a past work, but instead use existing works to create something new. Growing culture is the point, after all. “Delete IP” is an enticing idea when IP seems to do nothing but get in the way of progress, and “maximize IP” is a recipe for public contempt. Only balanced copyright offers a bargain that makes us all better off.