Chris Anderson was here at the University of Michigan recently giving a talk about "Problems with the Long Tail." What really impressed me is that he has moved beyond the "Hey, look at that tail!" rhetoric. He has arrived at an argument about copyright that follows naturally from the logic of the long tail economy. He notes that there are actually two tails (a city of two tails?). The long tail of appeal means more niche markets and less popular hits as ecoomic drivers. But in addition, there is a long tail in time, which means more niche markets for older things and less focus on new things as economic drivers. This means "the end of out-of-print." Regarding continuous access to older materials, Chris said "Today's items are tomorrow's tail." Basically, because digital distribution and the long tail economy solve various market problems, the only one left is rights. Copyright turns a low barrier-to-entry economy into a high barrier-to-entry economy and therefore prevents the growth and expansion of/into the long tail. Obviously, this would cripple the information economy. Finally, he says that the long tail is amateurs; the long tail is expression. Copyright is a process designed for an economy driven by proprietary new hits; whereas commons-thinking and Creative Commons is more suited to the long tail economy.