Personally I think copyright has extended into way too many realms that have nothing to do with what most people probably think it’s for, like locking out repairs of tractors and cars. It’s also gotten rid of many sales where instead of ownership of what you buy it’s a restrictive license to use.
I also feel like there’s a lot of social questions as to what we want copyright to do for our society. Even today we tend to think of laws to do something beneficial for some part of society, and argue about who should get what benefits and who might lose out with the laws.
Copyright enables large businesses and creation of content. But unlike from the dawn of modern content business through the late 1990s, today even Disney doesn’t really make money strictly via copyright in the traditional sense of selling copies of content. No, they make money via streaming subscriptions, and theme parks and hotels etc.
Now let’s see what happens if we got rid of copyright. Well, presumably less people would make money selling copies of what they already created. And this presumably would lead to less content, so the argument goes. I actually over the last 15 years have doubted this more and more with youtube, podcasts and streaming which combined with patreon and substack seem to work with rather lesser or free models for people listening. Piracy of content is both easier than ever and yet way more people pay for the various streaming services mostly for convenience and first run access.
But lets grant that some new content isn’t made. So what? From a societal POV we have more content already existing and being made than we can handle. If 50% less netflix movies or YouTube channels existed - would that actually hurt society for entertainment or visual art?
Then there’s the jobs aspect. I still maintain that currently under copyright the companies want to and are outsourcing to much cheaper locations and eventually will fight to just use AI. I don’t think jobs are really saved by copyright.
I also think this method of getting paid is kind of unfair. If you’re anything but a creator you by law get paid for doing the job one time. Mechanic? You get paid for the job. Consultant, you get paid for the hours worked. Teacher? You get paid salary. Why is everyone else limited in what they can do and how they can use their property for one special group of jobs? In some ways it’s worse than that - think of all the surveillance, court cases, and extra charges to pay for “copy protection” to try and artificially limit what people can do. It’s almost like the drug war.
And like the drug war, I don’t think it achieves it’s stated goal on the face of it. You put in place all these restrictions, try to limit new beneficial technology like VCRs, all to possibly make someone pay you later. There’s no guarantee - it’s still legal to just not view the content and so not ever pay for it. And for the VAST majority of people - this is what happens. Buyers don’t know you and don’t want to pay for something they’re not interested in. So you end up providing it for “free” anyway just so someone knows you exist. But 99% ends up being the loss leader.
Today, and for a long time now, there are alternatives that have nothing to do with copyright. You tour and sell tickets. You sell merchandise. You use patreon or ads or kickstarter to fund the release up front. I would argue aside from the absolute biggest names, little would change. And even for the big names, they can sell even more tickets or special access, zoom meet and greets or even just “I bought the official release”.
Who would maybe be hurt are the big companies twisting copyright in ways that really suck, like forcing you to buy a new whatever because it can’t be repaired, or limiting you to expensive and slow dealer fixes. Disney could no longer “lock stuff up in the vault”, which is the opposite of what copyright was supposed to accomplish btw.
All this allows is an economically bad monopoly rent seeking. So I would prefer copyright went away, and we drastically limit patents and locked out patent trolling.
Personally I think copyright has extended into way too many realms that have nothing to do with what most people probably think it’s for, like locking out repairs of tractors and cars. It’s also gotten rid of many sales where instead of ownership of what you buy it’s a restrictive license to use.
I also feel like there’s a lot of social questions as to what we want copyright to do for our society. Even today we tend to think of laws to do something beneficial for some part of society, and argue about who should get what benefits and who might lose out with the laws.
Copyright enables large businesses and creation of content. But unlike from the dawn of modern content business through the late 1990s, today even Disney doesn’t really make money strictly via copyright in the traditional sense of selling copies of content. No, they make money via streaming subscriptions, and theme parks and hotels etc.
Now let’s see what happens if we got rid of copyright. Well, presumably less people would make money selling copies of what they already created. And this presumably would lead to less content, so the argument goes. I actually over the last 15 years have doubted this more and more with youtube, podcasts and streaming which combined with patreon and substack seem to work with rather lesser or free models for people listening. Piracy of content is both easier than ever and yet way more people pay for the various streaming services mostly for convenience and first run access.
But lets grant that some new content isn’t made. So what? From a societal POV we have more content already existing and being made than we can handle. If 50% less netflix movies or YouTube channels existed - would that actually hurt society for entertainment or visual art?
Then there’s the jobs aspect. I still maintain that currently under copyright the companies want to and are outsourcing to much cheaper locations and eventually will fight to just use AI. I don’t think jobs are really saved by copyright.
I also think this method of getting paid is kind of unfair. If you’re anything but a creator you by law get paid for doing the job one time. Mechanic? You get paid for the job. Consultant, you get paid for the hours worked. Teacher? You get paid salary. Why is everyone else limited in what they can do and how they can use their property for one special group of jobs? In some ways it’s worse than that - think of all the surveillance, court cases, and extra charges to pay for “copy protection” to try and artificially limit what people can do. It’s almost like the drug war.
And like the drug war, I don’t think it achieves it’s stated goal on the face of it. You put in place all these restrictions, try to limit new beneficial technology like VCRs, all to possibly make someone pay you later. There’s no guarantee - it’s still legal to just not view the content and so not ever pay for it. And for the VAST majority of people - this is what happens. Buyers don’t know you and don’t want to pay for something they’re not interested in. So you end up providing it for “free” anyway just so someone knows you exist. But 99% ends up being the loss leader.
Today, and for a long time now, there are alternatives that have nothing to do with copyright. You tour and sell tickets. You sell merchandise. You use patreon or ads or kickstarter to fund the release up front. I would argue aside from the absolute biggest names, little would change. And even for the big names, they can sell even more tickets or special access, zoom meet and greets or even just “I bought the official release”.
Who would maybe be hurt are the big companies twisting copyright in ways that really suck, like forcing you to buy a new whatever because it can’t be repaired, or limiting you to expensive and slow dealer fixes. Disney could no longer “lock stuff up in the vault”, which is the opposite of what copyright was supposed to accomplish btw.
All this allows is an economically bad monopoly rent seeking. So I would prefer copyright went away, and we drastically limit patents and locked out patent trolling.