Quote:
Originally Posted by Joykins
I think there's a place in the world of art for offering a product (song, book, whatever) for free electronically and accepting donations. Doctorow's made it work for him. My husband's had some success doing that with music. But I think this generally works best in small, niche markets.
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I think it works best when it's the authors choice. Copyright laws protect that choice. People can make that choice now.
Some people seem to forget that it is copyright protection that makes things like Creative Commons and GPL possible. It is the protection of copyright laws that give you the ability to say "You can use my work for free and and share it BUT YOU MAY NOT SELL IT FOR MONEY!"
These 'New Society' types seem to be fine using the existing protections for their own choices, but they seem to want to take choice away from anyone who disagrees.
That being said, I'd like to see copyright law reform. The main purpose is supposed to be public interest: Protect the creators right to control and profit from their work for some time, so they can create good work that will eventually be part of the public domain.
It wasn't supposed to be a guarantee of profits for Disney to the end of time.
ApK