A Cease Fire in Copyfight?

In Saturday's Globe and Mail John Degen, head of the Professional Writers Association of Canada, declares a personal cease fire in the Copyright wars. He is offering, for free, a PDF version of his most recent novel "the Uninvited Guest" through his website.

"Does this mean I've surrendered, that I agree cultural product should cost nothing to obtain? Not at all. I'm a professional writer and I insist on a viable economic model for my work, and for the work of publishers and booksellers. I'm not giving my novel away out of a sense of hopelessness. Rather I'm investing in my confidence in the literary marketplace.

People who like the download are free to share it and thereby market it. After all, the literary sharing economy was created long before we went digital (think libraries). Those who really like my book can pick up an offline copy from their local bookstore. There are, ahem, a few remaining. Importantly, all this activity will occur within the legal boundaries of copyright law. The Uninvited Guest remains my intellectual property. When it comes time to sell the film rights, for instance, it will be me doing the selling.
Time for us all to take a breath, I think. The war, if there ever was one, is over."

Whatever the future outcome(s) of the copyfight Mr. Degen is positioning himself to win. For over a decade now producers of music, film, television, literature and other cultural works have been fighting for more rights, better enforcement and more money and they have been losing. I think, if you're a producer, you'll find if you start with the supposition that your fans are not your enemies, that you can and should have a symbiotic relationship that it will quickly point the way to the end of the war.
Most content producers, as well as their lobbyists and advocates in Ottawa (and other world capitals) have started with the idea that the audience is the enemy, that your fans are basically criminals who want to do you in and that an adversarial relationship should exist between creators and consumers.
Given this approach it is not surprising that content producers have been losing. Whatever the outcome of all of this the one certainty is that the cooperation of the audience is going to be required for any solution to work. I hope that Mr. Degen's position will result in more Canadian content producers and distributors rethinking their approach.