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Originally Posted by pwalker8
Well, gosh, as a programmer, I would love it if I could copyright my code and get paid everytime it gets called. Doesn't mean that my particular desire to get rich has any real moral obligation on society.
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Exactly.
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In general, artists like public domain. It allows them to climb on the backs of previous generations and "borrowing" is most common in music and movies. For very common examples are MC Hammer's "Can't Touch This" whose beat is almost an exact replica of Rick James "Super Freak". Up until 1988, most artists were fairly open about borrowing. Currently, rappers like to mix in beats and extracts from other artists. In the US, this is considered fair use.
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Can't argue with that.
Everything is climbing on the back of something else in any case, just some are more blatant and more obvious. Nature & Nurture, as they say.
Things are never as unique as many seem to think.
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Authors seem to be a bit more caught up in the idea that copyright is property, perhaps because while music and movies is general a collaborative effort and the creator may not be the performer, authors are both the creator and performer, assuming you ignore the work done by editors and the like.
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Hard work should always be rewarded, but more often than not it isn't, because there is an element of judgment involved. Very little is guaranteed, and things often get distorted when it comes to expectations.
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Once again, I suspect that the vast majority of the public are indifferent towards the idea of copyright, just so long as they can get their books, music and movies at what they perceive as a fair price. To a great extent, copyright as it currently exists, is driven by the small group of companies that benefit from it and ignored by everyone else.
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Can't argue with that either.
As I have said previously, I am not sure that historical elements are all that relevant, in our so called enlightened age. Digital, has certainly disrupted things from a copyright point of view, because of ease or fear of duplication ... not to mention a huge increase in quality, basically a clone.
A physical item has a cost to produce, that needs to be recouped at the very least. A digital copy of a copy costs virtually nothing to produce. Because of that, copyright has entered a new age, where it is based on something other than just physical. In principle, many elements are still the same, but not all.