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posted by martyb on Sunday January 26 2020, @09:05AM   Printer-friendly
from the water-is-wet dept.

In Serving Big Company Interests, Copyright Is in Crisis:

We're taking part in Copyright Week, a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day this week, various groups are taking on different elements of copyright law and policy, addressing what's at stake and what we need to do to make sure that copyright promotes creativity and innovation.

Copyright rules are made with the needs of the entertainment industry in mind, designed to provide the legal framework for creators, investors, distributors, production houses, and other parts of the industry to navigate their disputes and assert their interests.

A good copyright policy would be one that encouraged diverse forms of expression from diverse creators who were fairly compensated for their role in a profitable industry. But copyright has signally failed to accomplish this end, largely because of the role it plays in the monopolization of the entertainment industry (and, in the digital era, every industry where copyrighted software plays a role). Copyright's primary approach is to give creators monopolies over their works, in the hopes that they can use these as leverage in overmatched battles with corporate interests. But monopolies have a tendency to accumulate, piling up in the vaults of big companies, who use these government-backed exclusive rights to dominate the industry so that anyone hoping to enter it must first surrender their little monopolies to the hoards of the big gatekeepers.

Creators get a raw deal in a concentrated marketplace, selling their work into a buyer's market. Giving them more monopolies – longer copyright terms, copyright over the "feel" of music, copyright over samples – just gives the industry more monopolies to confiscate in one-sided negotiations and add to their arsenals. Expecting more copyright to help artists beat a concentrated industry is like expecting more lunch money to help your kid defeat the bullies who beat him up on the playground every day. No matter how much lunch money you give that kid, all you'll ever do is make the bullies richer.


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  • (Score: 2) by loonycyborg on Monday January 27 2020, @08:54AM

    by loonycyborg (6905) on Monday January 27 2020, @08:54AM (#949235)

    That brings me to one of the worst problems with copyright. It pushes several of our emotional buttons. We like to think we're all unique. Individuality is one of the traits we supposedly possess that we cherish the most. SF "teleporation" schemes have to erase the original, make the original die, to preserve that so cherished individuality. Make new copy at target location, kill original. Copyright is in a way, one legal manifestation of that desire.

    Eclipse Phase [wikipedia.org] actually has copying yourself without destroying the original as distinct possibility that occurs often and as a plot point. Also, entire thing is distributed under CC license.

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