Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan
Both sides of this argument are a bit contradictory: Do you want all works to be free, or do you want the creators of the works to be able to profit? You can't have both.
Also, don't forget there is another group involved here: Independent artists and creators that don't use the big publishing/recording companies. Copyright protects them most of all.
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I don't think that's quite what he means by "freely available." Under copyright, there are things that are available at a reasonable price, things available at an unreasonable price, and things withheld from publication. Further, if you include the DMCA into the discussion of general copyright, there are things that are available at a reasonable or unreasonable price, but limited in use.
Creators will still be able to profit if copyright is abolished. How much is open to question. In answering that question, you can assume a "static economy" or a "dynamic economy." If you assume a static economy - i.e., nobody does anything differently - then undoubtedly profits will be reduced for some and eliminated for others.
If you assume a dynamic economy - aka "reality," - then profits will be reduced for some, eliminated for others, and increased for some. It's just that we don't immediately see how profits will be increased. But there is some glimmer of what will happen. In the music industry, for example, what seems to be happening among the kids who make very little by way of profit from sale of recorded music is that they make money selling "merch." (Which spellcheck wants me to correct to "mercy," perhaps not without reason...)
Things being what they are in a capitalist economy, it's unlikely that copyright law will be abolished. It could be replaced, though, at least in theory, by a more consumer friendly law. But as you point out, there are the big corporations to be contended with, and they want more of the same. Since to a very large extent they have our "elected representatives" in their back pockets, they will get a lot of what they want - a distorted version of copyright that only accidentally protects the smaller artists.