> Thanks, Hal, that's the most cohesive "take" on this I have seen. Whereas
> copyrights laws have been struggling to keep artists and inventors from being
> outright frauded, they've often done little to help artists to make money,
> rather we are given the option waiting til the fraud has been perpetrated and
> then suing to collect (about 50-50% chance, and only if you can afford to
> sue).
Another great frustration of mine in this never-ending discussion is
having to constantly remind people of the difference between copyrights,
trademarks, and fraud. Passing someone's work off as your own is fraud,
and trading on the good name of an artist without eir consent is a
violation of the trademark on their good name, and I absolutely
support prosecution of those and always have. Copyright criminalizes
/honest/ copying: it prevents me from putting a copy of (or adaptation
of), say, Damien's latest book on my web site even if I correctly
identify it as his, and provide links to his own site and/or links to
where they can buy authorized prints, and do not claim in any way to
be associated with him.
I agree with Hal that copyright will become basically unenforceable
and irrelevant as technology advances. You and Hal and others might
bemoan this as unfortunate while I celebrate, but we all really do
want to see good creative works produced and see artists prosper.
But I look at it from the demand side: it is precisely because I and
others /want/ good art that it is up to /us/ to find ways to ensure
that its producers are found and rewarded. It may be up to us as
comsumers to take on the burden of finding business models that make
this possible in a world where information is free.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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