Quote:
Originally Posted by nekokami
I disagree, strongly. The current copyright laws encourage works to fall out of print and into obscurity, impoverishing the culture as a whole. These laws also enforce an unfair standard by which content companies (e.g. Disney) are able to take advantage of common cultural content now in the public domain, while ensuring that their own contributions to culture (such as they are) cannot similarly be incorporated into new works, further undermining the implied social contract of fairness. An environment is created in which many people cease to care about the contractual rights of authors, because they perceive that the whole system is unfair. I am not advocating piracy, but I find it unsurprising that pro-piracy attitudes exist given the current imbalance of legal protection for content "owners" vs. consumers.
|
Well lets remember that ultimately it is the choice of the author if he or she wants to let a work fall into obscurity. Any author, at any time, can choose to forgo the protections that copyright offers and place their work into the public domain or at least make it more public than the default (via the creative commons license for example).
With respect, my argument is that the length of copyright itself is not a justification for violating copyright, the idea that the length creates an environment where people cease to care about contractual rights is not a justification, in and of itself for the breaking of the social contract, only an explanation of why it happens.
Ultimately there is one reason, and one reason only why people in a democratic company have to put up with such ridiculous copyright terms; we let them get away with it. Only a small percentage of the population cares enough to even say anything, and few work meaningfully to have copyright laws relaxed. Instead, people will complain and they will break laws that they themselves played a part in letting them get passed.
If we really want to see reasonable copyright terms, then we need to start working towards it in a meaningful way; violating copyright only undermines our position by making it look like we simply want books for free. Write your comgressman, MP, etc.
--
Bill