Re: Not so fast there, kiddocrispengrayOctober 19 2011, 02:09:39 UTC
Exactly the point, Bob. The technology we have today is diametrically opposed to the current state of copyright. Look at the Kindle or any other e-reader -- when you buy a book on Kindle, you're not buying the book. You're buying the right to read it, which could be revoked at any time. To insist on our current copyright paradigm in the face of modern technology is like to insist on horse and buggy laws on airport runways.
I don't think Napster killed a billion-dollar music industry. I'd argue that the music industry did a fine job of doing that to itself. By insisting to continue to operate as if the technology didn't exist, the only music they were really skilled at producing was their own whistling in the dark. Did Napster help? Probably. There's also evidence that many of those who download music or other such material end up purchasing the stuff they like. So the technology has both helped and harmed the industry, and the jury's still out on which it did more. It certainly broke the RIAA's monopoly on CD prices, though, which isn't a bad thing.
As far as the Gutenberg Project, please note that this is neither Google, nor does it work with any books that aren't specifically already to public domain. Project Gutenberg's whole purpose is to make sure that books by copyrighted authors don't get lost -- which happens when publishers no longer feel that the market is viable for those books, or that those books have already fallen into the public domain. There is an important distinction here between preservation and theft.
As far as things becoming auto-public domain... that just doesn't happen. The Bono Act protects things. Student homework is even copyrighted. The moment the pen leaves the page, it's copyrighted for the duration of the creator's life, and then some. If you believe that an author must proactively register for copyright, and opt out of work becoming automatically public domain, that is factually incorrect; the Bono Act does entirely the opposite for absolutely anything you write.
The copyright and patent office is there to keep records, which help in case of legal challenges. Writing something makes it copyrighted. The copyright office just takes official notice of it, which makes it easier to defend your copyright in legal cases. But that's not necessary to be legally recognized as copyrighted.
I don't think Napster killed a billion-dollar music industry. I'd argue that the music industry did a fine job of doing that to itself. By insisting to continue to operate as if the technology didn't exist, the only music they were really skilled at producing was their own whistling in the dark. Did Napster help? Probably. There's also evidence that many of those who download music or other such material end up purchasing the stuff they like. So the technology has both helped and harmed the industry, and the jury's still out on which it did more. It certainly broke the RIAA's monopoly on CD prices, though, which isn't a bad thing.
As far as the Gutenberg Project, please note that this is neither Google, nor does it work with any books that aren't specifically already to public domain. Project Gutenberg's whole purpose is to make sure that books by copyrighted authors don't get lost -- which happens when publishers no longer feel that the market is viable for those books, or that those books have already fallen into the public domain. There is an important distinction here between preservation and theft.
As far as things becoming auto-public domain... that just doesn't happen. The Bono Act protects things. Student homework is even copyrighted. The moment the pen leaves the page, it's copyrighted for the duration of the creator's life, and then some. If you believe that an author must proactively register for copyright, and opt out of work becoming automatically public domain, that is factually incorrect; the Bono Act does entirely the opposite for absolutely anything you write.
The copyright and patent office is there to keep records, which help in case of legal challenges. Writing something makes it copyrighted. The copyright office just takes official notice of it, which makes it easier to defend your copyright in legal cases. But that's not necessary to be legally recognized as copyrighted.
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