The notion that every person has to somehow protect their works for all of their life and beyond the grave is obviously dumb and purely favors corporations at the cost of pitting artists against themselves and fans.
Let’s not forget that copyright enforcement is mostly funded by taxpayers. It’s a collectively massive cost to the rest of us.
It probably made sense for a limited time when we (society) were getting something of comparable value (cultural works) in return. But now that it’s effectively endless, and dominated by corporations, it looks an awful lot like systematic extraction of wealth… from us.
Well, I guess we’ll never see any developments in mathematics or theoretical physics. No copyright there except journals paywalling our work and paying us absolutely nothing. Oh wait…
We live in an era of copyblight - it’s an era we won’t leave until the caveman mentality of “this mine, no touch or I hurt” fizzles out. Give it another 5000 or so years maybe?
It’s just th enclosure continuing in the non-physical space.
Don’t the forget the extortionate textbooks gatekeeping who can understand the extortionate journals.
The thing that will bring down the copywrite system will be countries without copywrite making enforcement impossible.
We need more examples?
Seriously, though, there are options in between keeping copyright as it is and removing it altogether. Shortening the term is one. Mandatory mechanical licensing is another (that is, allowing people to make copies for a fee set by the government or a nonpartisan board without requiring permission from the copyright owner, who does, however, receive the fee—the trick is setting the fee at a level that makes it reasonable for the average person making a single copy, but still high enough to make it unattractive for corporations churning out millions of them). We also need to overhaul how derivative works are handled, and some aspects of trademark law.
Another option is to not allow copying of digital copyrighted works, but do allow resale/gifting and require storefronts to offer something like that. I can do that with physical goods, and that’s most of the reason I’d want to copy a copyrighted work (e.g. to send to a friend).
I think trademark law is generally fine as-is, but patent and copyright law are atrocious. My proposal:
- cut copyright to the original 14 year term (or perhaps 10), and allow a one-time renewal if you can prove financial hardship (e.g. small creators who didn’t get traction with their product)
- cut patents to 7 years, and allow a one-time renewal of 5 years when going to market (so max 12 years if it takes 7 years to bring a product to market); maybe an exception if the product is stuck with regulators
- don’t require lawsuits to keep trademark, only require filing of a potential violation with the trademark office; you can sue, but that shouldn’t be necessary to “defend” your trademark
Well I for one have never heard about anybody doing anything creative without being paid for it.
/sAnother concerns equity and accessibility:
removal of more than 500,000 books from public access is a serious blow to lower-income families, people with disabilities, rural communities, and LGBTQ+ people, among many others.
so low-income people in the argument are pretty obvious
how about people with disabilities or rural communities? why are they there? do they have easier access to libraries than bookstore?
and what the hell are lgbt people doing there? do they read disproportionately more more than average non-lgbt population, or why are they singled out?
seems like this whole paragraph is just “lets throw in some minorities, no one can talk back at that” lame argument
Libraries are safe spaces for minorities and the LGBTQ+ community. Books in general spread awareness and raise empathy and can also help struggling young people understand that they are not alone.
That quote isn’t saying people of these communities read or use a public library more than those who aren’t; it’s pointing out that the erasure of public safe spaces and resources affects groups that benefit from their existence more.
All of that doesn’t even mention the content that was likely present in those 500,000 books.
Libraries are safe spaces for minorities
this text was primarily about digital archives, so i don’t think this applies much
can also help struggling young people understand that they are not alone.
this does make sense, ok then.
rural communities
Online lending allows people in remote or rural places much more economical access to more titles than otherwise, even if they have access to a decent local library
oh right, i totally ignored the “digital” part, even though i mentioned that in nearby reply. my bad.
The argument centers around the equality of access, which is especially relevant in the digital age. Rural & disabled population may have problem accessing content with certain restrictions (e.g. need physical access, lack of accessibility features, only available in some region).
fair point, i seem to have conveniently ignored that i was talking about digital, not physical, archive here…
