Text 19070, 64 rader
Skriven 2011-05-19 07:53:35 av Björn Felten (2:203/2)
  Kommentar till text 19037 av Richard Webb (1:116/901.0)
Ärende: The so called intellectual property
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 RW> Are you telling the creators of the works you enjoy the
 RW> most that their work is worth nothing? That song you really like, that
 RW> book you read which helped shape your ideas on
 RW> how life works, that software you use.

   Absolutely not; on the contrary! I want to strengthen the creator's rights.

   But first let's clarify one thing. There are two completely different sides
of the copyright issue.

   First -- and most important -- part is the moral side. The right to be
credited to your creation. This is something that you don't even have to put in
the law book, everyone agrees on this. Try claiming that you painted the Mona
Lisa, composed Für Elise or wrote Hamlet and you'll only make a fool of
yourself.

   If you look in any book, you'll see that the author almost always has the
(C). If you look at any record you may have, the creator never has the (C),
it's always the record company.

   Second part is the real copyright, the exclusive right to make copies. This
is no right per se, it's a time limited monopoly granted by the society to
encourage creators.

   The copyright MAFIAA (RIAA, MPAA, BSA, IFPI, etc.) has always managed to get
those two rights lumped together in the law. This is of course so they can be
able to push the creators in front of them when they keep demanding longer and
longer monopoly time.

   When you patent an invention you get a 20 year monopoly, and that's it. When
you write music you get a monopoly of life time plus 75 years (soon to be
extended to 95)! Logical?

   So how do I want to strengthen the creator's rights? Well, for starters you
should never be able to sell your copyright to anyone. It should be yours for
eternity. You can license it but then only for a short, limited time with
options to renew. Just the way you suggested.

   If you want the real copyright -- the monopoly to make copies -- you must
register the work just as with an invention (patent). The originality will of
course be investigated just as with patents now.

   I (and the rest of us in the Pirate Party) have lots of more ideas, and they
all amount to getting more money to the creators and less to the plastic disk
manufacturers, who still haven't realized that their business model now is
hopelessly outdated -- just as the ice delivery business a century ago.

 RW> There has to be a middle ground somewhere. OUtright theft
 RW> serves nobody's best interests in the long run.

   True. Theft however is when I deprive you of a physical object so that you
no longer have it but I do. Making copies is never theft -- at most it's a
violation of the legal monopoly explained above, but as long as you don't do it
for commercial reasons it used to be called fair use and this has a strong
acceptance amongst ordinary people. Remember the cassette tapes you used to
make from records and the radio when you were younger...?

   Many artists have already discovered that file sharing is the best marketing
way invented since the smoke signals. Every independent investigation shows
that the artists have only gains to make from it. The only ones losing are the
greedy copyright MAFIAA with their outdated business...

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