Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan
I don't agree, because I say there's no secret to how the digital environment works. We know exactly how the digital environment works: Digital files can easily be copied and redistributed by anonymous users who believe they cannot be caught and should not be punished.
Copyright isn't "impeding" anything; it's being impeded by scofflaws. Copyright doesn't "work" because individuals don't respect it, and governments don't have the power to enforce it in the digital realm; and knowing individuals can flagrantly violate it without the expectation of punishment, violate it they do.
In that light, only improving the ability to identify scofflaws and punish them for violations will make copyright work.
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That's not what I mean by "works." I'm not talking about the mechanics. I'm talking about the human response to a changing technological environment.(From a writer's perspective, I'm talking about one of the basic types of science fiction.)
Laws meant to govern the traffic in a horse & buggy era do not work on interstate highways. At one time, when a car came to an intersection, traffic laws required the drive to stop, get out with a light, walk into the intersection, and determine that the horses were out of the way before proceeding. That is, in my view, where we are with copyright.
As for enforcing those laws, all I can say is that the current copyright laws, particularly the DMCA, are fairly analogous in their structure to the laws attempting to enforce Prohibition.
Good luck with that. My personal reaction to that sort of law is to support repeal, and make my own beer.
On the whole, I think that copyright is going to disappear as a creator/consumer concern, because I think that the economics of a digital environment will move us to some kind of provider environment in which consumer ownership becomes irrelevant. Like streaming. My kids no longer care about owning their music or movies. What they care about is convenient access.
It seems to me that people in general believe that they are entitled to have the media they want, when they want it & how they want it. They'll pay for that, so long as they don't think they are being gouged. Try to take this away from them on the pretext of enforcing copyright or fighting piracy is a losing proposition.