03-20-2011, 02:03 PM | #16 | |
Wizard
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The motivation is for corporations to continue to make as much money as possible for as long as possible, and reduce their costs in doing do. The longer they can sell Mickey Mouse DVDs, the longer it will be before Disney has to pay a living author to create something new. |
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03-20-2011, 02:55 PM | #17 |
Grand Sorcerer
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I think the best system would be something that requires copyright to be renewed periodically. Say something like an initial term of 30 years or 10 years after the death of the creator, whichever is later. Then the heirs would need to actively take steps to hold on to copyright--say they need to renew every 10 years, to a maximum of 70 years after the death of the creator.
This would most likely free up tons of the books that fall out of print and are in limbo, with murky ownership among multiple heirs, etc. But the ones that are still in print and producing income would still be eligible for copyright protection, which would keep Disney and the like happy. |
03-20-2011, 02:59 PM | #18 |
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Remember one thing: as much as we might want to dream of (and imagine being) some fellow sitting on a Caribbean beach sipping drinks with little umbrellas in them and enjoying the benefits of books written by his great-great-grandfather whom he never met, the reality is that it's all about Disney.
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03-20-2011, 07:46 PM | #19 | |
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03-20-2011, 09:05 PM | #20 | |
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I finished that free culture book on the train this morning, It's sick that we have allowed those media conglomerates such a stranglehold over the culture. The more I read, the more I view piracy as a natural right. |
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03-20-2011, 11:06 PM | #21 | ||
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My favorite bit from The Public Domain (emphasis added): Quote:
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03-21-2011, 12:33 AM | #22 |
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I read Boyle's "Public Domain" I read all those things spellbanisher listed in another thread. This was my favorite part from the Public Domain, it feels apropos I think.
The law locks up the man or woman Who steals the goose from off the common But leaves the greater villain loose Who steals the common from off the goose. The law demands that we atone When we take things we do not own But leaves the lords and ladies fine Who take things that are yours and mine. The poor and wretched don’t escape If they conspire the law to break; This must be so but they endure Those who conspire to make the law. The law locks up the man or woman Who steals the goose from off the common And geese will still a common lack Till they go and steal it back. I'll probably read the rest of Lessig's books. I read that he's working on getting rid of corruption in our political systems now, |
03-21-2011, 05:49 AM | #23 | |
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it is actually so
Actually, copyright has to be renewed. Works that were published after 1923 and before ~1945, depending on the time of the author's death has to be renewed.there are plenty of works free to be reprinted and/or republished that seemingly under copyright but were originally published after 1923.
Andras (author of the book the public domain publishing bible) Quote:
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03-21-2011, 03:43 PM | #24 | |
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Should Ford have shut down when Henry Ford died? Should music by Michael Jackson, Jim Morrison and Harry Chapin all be free because they are dead? Nothing for their families? I do agree copyright shouldn't go on forever, but I don't think it should stop at their death. I like the 50 year idea. |
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03-21-2011, 04:35 PM | #25 |
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03-21-2011, 05:43 PM | #26 |
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03-21-2011, 06:04 PM | #27 |
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Books are not cars.
All else aside, including arguments about first sale, resales, etc., there's one huge difference which puts books (and anything else we can label "intellectual property") into a category all its own: exclusion. Nobody has an infinite monopoly on anything. At least, we try to keep them from having one -- there are plenty of laws against it, however badly enforced they sometimes are. Even if the Selden patent had been upheld, there was still a 17-year limitation; after that, anyone who wanted to make a car could. Copyrights on books are essentially patents on words. If someone ... say, the Mitchell estate ... holds a copyright on a certain book, nobody else can publish anything that the copyright-owner's lawyer can prove is infringing -- say, The Wind Done Gone (which I really wish had gotten beyond the "no injunction, you two work it out" stage and a secret settlement). Ford can't just say "all your cars are belong to us"; they have to keep making better cars. But someone who writes a book doesn't have to keep making better books; they have that book, and anything close to that book. That's why the monopoly has to end: without such an end, eventually there would be a "draw death" of literature, where some future Shakespeare couldn't write Romeo and Juliet because some past William Painter had already locked that concept down forever. So just as patents are limited monopolies, so are copyrights. Or they should be ... except for the efforts of Disney. |
03-21-2011, 06:23 PM | #28 | |
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So yeah, "why should they be any different" is a very good question. |
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03-21-2011, 06:25 PM | #29 |
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I think this is a good article as to why the laws we apply to physical property should not be the same as the laws we apply to digital property:
http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/958 Here is an excerpt (actually, it is about half the article). "Real property is scarce and rivalrous: it cannot be created anew, and only a limited number of people can occupy and use a space at any one time. Copyrighted works are neither scarce nor rivalrous: books are created anew, by specific authors, and can be read by five million people as easily as by five dozen, depriving none of them, nor the author, of the ability to use the work. These aspects make very real differences. Helprin’s analogy calls up the mental image of a landowner’s descendents being kicked off of the land 70 years after the owner’s death. Of course, that’s not how real property works. The landowner has rights in the land because she bought it from someone or inherited it—she didn’t create it. When she passes it on to her descendants, they become the new owners with as many rights in it as she had, since they as well acquired this bit of limited, rivalrous resource in much the same way as she did. But compare this to Helprin’s books going to the public domain (some 90-100 years from now). By contrast, Helprin’s descendants own the right to the works only insofar as he had a right to them in the first place—as their creator. They aren’t the authors, the people who made the work exist. Nor, should someone else decide to publish or adapt a novel, are they deprived of the right to do the same. This is not a mere recitation of “the state giveth, and the state taketh away.” Copyright requires that a work have been published: ideas and their expression are only valuable in their transmission, whereas physical property, whether land or objects, can have inherent value. Thus, a whole different set of public issues are at stake here, including fundamental precepts of culture and free speech. Unlike land or chattels, words are free for use and infinite, and so are their combinations. Copyright law, in order to incentivize and occasionally enrich authors, restricts some uses of words—restricts speech!—so that authors may profit. Restriction of speech is a drastic step to take, and we (and I) take it gladly—for a limited time. Copyrighted works are distributed and used by people; they become part of our selves and our minds and our culture. Revisiting, adapting, and rewriting these works allows us to explore and examine the works and ourselves in ways that criticism alone cannot. Copyright is not an end in itself, unlike life and liberty. From a very basic standpoint, we can see how physical property is necessary to support life, and how ownership of that physical property (my food, my shelter) is essential to liberty. Copyright, on the other hand, could be abolished without loss of life or liberty. " Last edited by spellbanisher; 03-21-2011 at 07:36 PM. |
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