Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan
We've had the "horse-and-buggy vs cars" argument around here many times; yes, the laws need to be fixed. I continually notice, though, that no one seems to have a workable model to replace copyright.
|
It might be because there isn't one. Sometimes conditions change to the point where the law becomes irrelevant.
Quote:
|
Are you prepared to write all your own books? Good luck with that.
|
Not to worry. People wrote books before copyright, and they will write them if copyright dies. Particularly if I promise them some of my beer.
Quote:
|
Everyone seems to be allowing the particulars of copyright laws distract them from the real elephant in the room: Enforcement. Without enforcement, it doesn't matter whether your laws are good, bad or non-existent; you'll have chaos either way.
|
There is a small subset of people for whom that is true. But the vast majority of people obey the laws without enforcement entering into the equation. Enforcement only works at the margins. When a significant number of people decide to stop observing the law, enforcement stops working, and indeed, becomes dysfunctional, as witness our drug laws.
Quote:
In this case, we as a people are faced with losing literature... not completely, of course, but we are faced with the shutting-out of independent authors, the higher costs of mainstream published books, continued format and platform disconnections, and a continuing narrowing of choices. A media run by a couple of publishers, Amazon and Disney.
When people fully understand the implications of that, they will be more inclined to appreciate better security and enforcement for copyright laws (as they are, or amended for the digital realm) in order to preserve their access to quality literature.
|
See, I think that this situation exists
because of the copyright laws we have.