In late June, soul musician Stevie Wonder flew to Morocco to perform at a diplomatic conference for the World Intellectual Property Organization. Conference delegates were signing a treaty granting small exceptions to international copyright protections, improving access for blind and visually impaired persons. Wonder said the treaty was important because it helped “information to be accessible forever,” and it demonstrated “that it is possible to do business and do good at the same time.”

Business leaders disagreed with this “Ebony and Ivory” vision of harmony and social justice. For months, organizations like the Intellectual Property Owners Association had urged American trade representatives to reject the treaty because, “despite substantial differences between copyrights and patent protection,” allowing this exception might open the door to needy countries or people pleading exceptions for clean energy technology or pharmaceuticals. It would “threaten to upset the fundamental balance on which our US and global IP system is based.”

The reference to “balance” here demonstrates that while piracy may occasionally be radical (see Gavin Mueller’s “Gimme the Loot,” from Jacobin, 7-8), copyright as a system is largely reactionary. Though “balance” can refer to the more utilitarian emphasis copyright is given in the US Constitution  — a limited-term monopoly to “promote the useful arts and sciences”  — in the mouths of the propertied elite, “balance” generally means that while they are willing to consider marginal tweaks to these arbitrary protections, they basically want to maintain the status quo in terms of property and power.