Economist Beraja: AI isn't a Napster moment—frontier tech legitimizes taking after the fact
danielrock · x · 2026-10-23
Economist Martin Beraja pushes back on Adam Ryan's "Napster moment" framing of AI copyright disputes. His argument: oil prospectors, radio broadcasters, ad-data collectors, and now AI labs have repeatedly pushed resource frontiers before rights were settled—conflict followed, and the taking was usually legitimized after the fact. Napster differed on both counts: music rights were well established, and it was a small outsider vs. incumbents. Ryan's original thread argued the NYT v. OpenAI suit would force licensing because fighting every rights holder is a worse business than paying.
Related event: MIT economist argues AI data disputes aren't a Napster moment(2 posts)→
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