Quote:
Originally Posted by MGlitch
Just imagine if you could have instantly and perfectly replicated and sold their work for a fraction of what they were selling it for.
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Before the printing press books could be replicated, and were, with a fraction of the effort that went into writing it originally. It was done all the time by monks called copyists. It wasn't instant but I'll bet it didn't take nearly as long as writing a book from scratch.
I suspect, although I don't know, that in 1710 copyright was begun as an answer to this and other similar problems.
If we stop copyright it will cause huge problems, of course. Much of our system and our economy is built around it. So simply dropping copyright would be silly. But we might find ways to move in that direction.
Again I'm not suggesting this is something society should do. I think it's something this group might discuss. Then, after we've considered it carefully we can decide whether we'll allow copyright to continue or not.
Barry