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Originally Posted by HansTWN
Copyright is not protecting authors from the free market. Copyright is protecting authors from theft. A free market exists when every author/authorized seller can offer his or her books and every reader can decide to buy it or to buy some other book.
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I must disagree the stature of Anne broke a monopoly wherein a publisher (book binder) would gain control of a book and not allow anyone else to print the same book in perpetuity. It limited the control of a single work to set number of years, I don't remember off the top of my head what it was I think it was 21. But it did nothing for or against authors who got a 1 time payment for selling the book. It has nothing to say about preventing derivative works. Basically it created a free market starting at the moment copyright expired.
Later the 1790 law in the US added the idea that people could demand payment for 14 years is someone used their work or patent but it was an idea closer to a statutory license than an ability to block use. You didn't withhold sale to maintain a competitive edge, you found someone using your patent who hadn't paid and you'd send them a strongly worded letter asking for the fee. That's closer to the freeloader you often speak of, someone who didn't want to pay the fee but without the fanatical control of who can do what with whatever. It isn't what you talk about these days where formats can be withheld and types of use denied.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HansTWN
If you now buy a machine to print famous companies' logos on a plain t-shirts you would not be taking advantage of a "free market" and furthering competition. Protecting ownership through branding or copyright promotes innovation and product quality. Good for society. You can always choose not to buy or buy something else, we are not essential necessities.
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I'd like to see some data supporting branding promoting innovation rather than just promoting the idea of paying for a logo and having the product be secondary. Consider the "apple tax" the guts of apple products are stock parts anyone could get from their manufacturers, anything innovated that's added is covered under patent but it isn't the logo that produces the innovation. See my post with the fashion industry talk it addresses this topic directly and should probably be better discussed there.