If copyright vanished, writing on spec would vanish, but since contract law wouldn't vanish, you could still control the duplication of material and its treatment.
Derivative works would likely flourish - is that all bad? And, of course, property rights might still attach to your work, just not copyright style protections.
And the automatic rights that come to the consumer with copyright would also vanish.
In a world without copyright, we'd have Kindles. :-)
(Of course, I'm no expert, and gave this just a few seconds thought.)
I imagine that without copyright, the world would turn to the complete dearth of all creativity that existed before 1705.
More to the point, without a maximalist copyright regime like the one established by the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, we'd be back in the pre-1996 world, essentially bereft of all creative work. I can't even imagine what leaving the current Golden Age of creativity would be like.
DWS's story is deeply flawed because it is based on a false dilemma: Wanting to fix current copyright doesn't mean wanting to abolish all copyright. The people who are benefiting from our current deeply borked copyright system are Big Industry (the Mouse, RIAA, MPAA) who have a track record of abusing their customers, not individual writers, artists, and musicians.
We already are starting to see what that kind of world would look like in the software arena and to some extent in other creative activity areas.
The idea that the profit and control motive on creative works is the only thing that makes the world go round seems pretty dodgy given a brief look at such going concerns.
Did Shakespeare or Emily Dickinson write amazing things in spite of no access to or use of copyright? Seems like they did.
Matter of fact, this Groklaw article notes that Old Will might have been in deep doo had our current copyright laws been in play. Be careful what you wish for? :)
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mabfan
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Date: 2009-07-07 09:42 pm (UTC)If copyright vanished, writing on spec would vanish, but since contract law wouldn't vanish, you could still control the duplication of material and its treatment.
Derivative works would likely flourish - is that all bad? And, of course, property rights might still attach to your work, just not copyright style protections.
And the automatic rights that come to the consumer with copyright would also vanish.
In a world without copyright, we'd have Kindles. :-)
(Of course, I'm no expert, and gave this just a few seconds thought.)
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Date: 2009-07-07 09:49 pm (UTC)Re: Come back zinc . . .come back zinc . . .
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Date: 2009-07-07 11:22 pm (UTC)More to the point, without a maximalist copyright regime like the one established by the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, we'd be back in the pre-1996 world, essentially bereft of all creative work. I can't even imagine what leaving the current Golden Age of creativity would be like.
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Date: 2009-07-08 12:45 am (UTC)(no subject)
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From:Free and Open
Date: 2009-07-08 07:15 pm (UTC)The idea that the profit and control motive on creative works is the only thing that makes the world go round seems pretty dodgy given a brief look at such going concerns.
Did Shakespeare or Emily Dickinson write amazing things in spite of no access to or use of copyright? Seems like they did.
Matter of fact, this Groklaw article notes that Old Will might have been in deep doo had our current copyright laws been in play. Be careful what you wish for? :)
US Copyright Law, King Lear, and Jammie Thomas-Rasset - Groklaw