Quote:
Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks
By the way, in reference to innovation still occurring and being quite healthy under older copyright rules or in cases where copyright/patents didn't exist at all--it should be noted that back in earlier days, it was much, much more difficult to "copy" or redistribute goods. It took a lot more work to take a book (in or out of copyright) and reproduce it. The lack if technology made theft or redistribution unlikely. So innovation and money-making could occur without as much threat as exists today.
The same holds true with patents on technology or drugs. The knowledge to recreate a drug was difficult to come by. The ability to copy car technology was not easy to come by. The sheer lack of being able to share intelligence protected innovators for a time. These days, not so much.
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I've made that point over and over. Technology created copyright, technology is now killing it. The only way to stop technology from killing copyright is to get rid of the technology involved. And that isn't going to happen. Too embedded for other purposes, too much money involved.
When gunpowder became used for weapontry, chivalry died. Many people were horrified at the time, but nothing they could do could stop it's death, except for getting rid of gunpowder. In Japan, they had the same problem, they
did get rid of gunpowder, and stayed isolated, without gunpowder for 2 centuries.
Do you want to shut the doors to the rest of the world and scrap all the computers, to keep your favorite author writing? Think about it...