Quote:
Originally Posted by Giggleton
Did you know that one of the inventors of the cell phone got the idea for the device after watching Star Trek? If you took a poll of all scientists, I suspect a very significant portion of them would tell you they were heavily influenced by Star Trek.
Star Trek is under copyright yes? But it is also mostly free, at least in some parts of the world. Think of all the technology that has been developed due to copyrighted science fiction, and then think of all the technology that might have been and can still be developed if copyright was done away with and science fiction texts were available to everyone everywhere.
There's lots of reasons we should do away with copyright, but all we need is one.
Also, yes I am unemployed at the moment, people think I'm weird when I start talking lol. I also think this thread is mostly done, there have indeed been many reasons given for the eradication of copyright, we could go into the realm of property in general, but I'm going AFK for a few.
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You bring up some interesting points here. A lot of scientists are inspired by works of fiction. I also think that most scientists and innovators are not motivated by a desire for profit. Part of the reason why the silicon valley is the most innovative tech region in the world is because of a culture that believes it can transform the world for the better through technology.
Still, I think you have things backwards. Major scientific research can only be done with lots of capital. To even have the opportunity to develop new scientific technologies you have to live in a fairly wealthy culture. That also probably means you can afford access to inspiring works of fiction.
Science Fiction is one area where Copyright may be unnecessary. Cory Doctorow makes all his works available for free and he does pretty well. Peter Watts writing career was in the toilet before he released his works under a Creative Commons license, and he says releasing his books for free online saved his writing career. Scifi fans are passionate about their culture, and they will dish out every last dollar they make to support it, and they love to share their passion with others as well. So there are some instances where Copyright may be unnecessary and in fact counterproductive.