this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2024
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The key problem is that copyright infringement by a private individual is regarded by the court as something so serious that it negates the right to privacy. It’s a sign of the twisted values that copyright has succeeded on imposing on many legal systems. It equates the mere copying of a digital file with serious crimes that merit a prison sentence, an evident absurdity.

This is a good example of how copyright’s continuing obsession with ownership and control of digital material is warping the entire legal system in the EU. What was supposed to be simply a fair way of rewarding creators has resulted in a monstrous system of routine government surveillance carried out on hundreds of millions of innocent people just in case they copy a digital file.

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[–] [email protected] 152 points 5 months ago (23 children)

lmao copyright isn't important

if copyright were abolished worldwide today, we'd be in a happier place. people who buy things generally want to buy from the official source anyway, those official sources might even have to cut prices or (god forbid!) have to make their services better to compete in the market

[–] [email protected] 87 points 5 months ago (3 children)

I don't want to see a end to copyright. I want it restored to what it was. Where the creator had a copyright for limited amount of time then everyone had a copyright to the work.

Now that time is beyond the amount of time that someone inspired by a copyrighted work could create some derivative of it. Unless you think someone inspired as a child would feel like bringing that inspiration to fulfilment as an elderly adult is going to happen often.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Humanity as we know it existed for ten of thousands of years without copyright. Copyright is the anti-thesis to creation. Everything humans create is iterative. Copyright along with the rest of intellectual property seeks to pervert creation for personal gain.

Art does not need copyright to survive and I would argue that intellectual property is not needed to promote the arts or science. It is designed to do the opposite which is limit creation to the benefit of the individual.

What makes this worse is the individual is now the corporation. Do you know that a lot of successful artists, particularly musicians, don't even own their own works?

Corporations benefit disproportionally by copyright. They have lobbied for decades to further pervert the flawed intention of copyright and intellectual property to the breaking point. Simply put, going down the road of trying to prove who created what was first is wrong.

Creation does not happen in a vacuum. Pretending that we create is isolation is farcical. We are great because of all those that came before us.

The telephone was invented by multiple people. The Wright brothers had European counterparts. These issues around intellectual copyright are a lot more complex than we are ready to admit.

We have billions of people now. Stop trying to pretend any idea, drawing, tune, or writing is unique. Rude wake up call, it is not.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Thank you, I seldom see my own thoughts laid out so clearly. As a practitioner of the Dark Arts (marketing), this union of commerce and art is a foul bargain. I think it's time the two had some time apart to work on themselves.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Art 100% needs copyright. There is a reason forgery is a crime. Copyright is meant to protect small creators. Yes it is being abused by corporations but the idea that we don’t need it is absurd. Stealing someone’s work and selling as your own is fraud. Plain and simple.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

First, how do you account for all the art made before copyright existed. Second, what about all the art created everyday where the creator does not pursue copyright let alone try to enforce their rights in a court of law. These two scenarios disprove your assertion that art needs copyright.

Perhaps you are under the misconception that artists need to make a living. Art is an expression of our culture and it is not inherently tied to making money. How many people are creating art right now without the intention to sell it. I will clue you in, there is a lot of people, millions who do this everyday.

The amount of art created for personal use dwarfs that of commercial use by a thousand fold. Copyright does not need to protect these artists at all. Read that, the majority of artists do not need or ever use copyright.

All art is iterative. This means every piece of art is built upon the art that came before it. Copying is literally how it is done. You know Led Zeppelin just copied a bunch of old blues songs? Oh you didn't because you think artists create stuff out of thin air apparently.

Stealing is depriving someone of their property. Copying does not do this at all. You are pushing a false narrative to prop up your flawed argument. Plain and simple.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I don't see the predictable effects of dropping IP laws as more harmful than the current reality. The idea is to protect small creators but the implementation does the opposite.

The solution, as is with so many societal issues, is UBI.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

A further solution than UBI is abolishing the exploitative system of capitalism, replacing it with post scarcity while implementing and maintaining true democracy where the people have actual power to vote on issues

Human rights should be respected most of all and should be legally ratified to protect human rights and equality to the fullest extent

Systems like sustainable energy and recycling can assist post scarcity, eliminating food wastage and finding new ways to recycle and use food bits that normally couldn't be consumed

New technologies and research into food production such as using vertical farms and aquaponics

Humans should be working together towards a better future in all aspects of life, no one's rights should be taken away in the name of equality either because then its not equality

I only see universal basic income as a transitional step towards what I have described

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Well sure, but "end the concept of Intellectual Property" is already a radical position to argue. Fully Automated Space Gay Communism is a little beyond the scope of the topic and a hard sell to normies.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Authentication of the author is not the same as copyright.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

My ideal copyright would be 15 years or death of the creator or the end of sale/support, whichever is earlier. That would mean that Portal 2 has copyright and Portal doesn’t, which sounds about right.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (3 children)

How about an exponentially increasing fee to retain copyright?

[–] WolfLink 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

So Disney and Nintendo can keep doing what they are doing but also the same companies can steal the work of smaller artists almost immediately?

No thanks.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

So Disney and Nintendo can keep doing what they are doing

After 30 years not even Disney or Nintendo will pay a billion for exclusivity.

but also the same companies can steal the work of smaller artists almost immediately?

Let's make copyright non-transferable. For a company to retain copyright it must employ the creator.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

After 30 years not even Disney or Nintendo will pay a billion for exclusivity.

In October 2012, Disney acquired Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

To keep episode IV in copyright would cost $2^47 = $141.737 trillion

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Nah. I'd even call 15 years too long.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

You don't pay a plumber every single time you use his work 15 yrs after his death.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

To retain copyright:-

$2^n for year n

$1 for year 1

$2 for year 2

$4 for year 3

$1k for year 10

$32k for year 15

$1m for year 20

$1bn for year 30

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Why, though? It still pointlessly favors people who already have money. Just get rid of it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Ok, let's say the copyright retention fee is only paid when it's above 1k, I.e. after 10 years.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You are desperate to give rich fucks an avenue to maintain an advantage over everyone else.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

No. I want to give small creators a tool to stop their work being stolen in the short term.

But I also want to force copyright monopolists to pay ever increasing tax on the property they hold that should really be in the public domain.

My proposal also means orphan works no longer exist.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Like, maybe tiered to something like 5 years: pay what it costs now, 10 years: 10 times that cost, and 15 years: 100 times, with a hard cap at 15? I could get behind that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Yeah. Something like that. Maybe don't even need a cap.

If you pay $2^n each year n to retain copyright then by year 30 you are into the billions.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

5 years: pay what it costs now

It doesn't cost anything to copyright something. You just automatically own the copyright to something you create.

(This may vary outside the US; I'm not familiar with international copyright law.)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

I thought there was a registration fee for copyright, but I think I mixed it up with trademark...

[–] [email protected] -1 points 5 months ago

I don't, it's not the 18th century and the industrial revolution. Copyright had a time and place and that isn't the here and now. We are worse off for copyright and patients today. Today they enshrine wealth and are a tool to prevent progress and inflate cost.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 5 months ago

cut prices

There you have your answer to the question you didn't ask, but you know what I mean

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

Becoming better at technology is the gateway to fucking with copyright. As if they're going to be able to do shit when I torrent their files over some obscure server in the developing world to over here. Fuck copyright and companies who engage in that. Every game, all kinds of media and intellectual property that these companies own should be stolen from them and distributed freely. This should then be followed by severe cyber attacks on said companies to destroy their infrastructure to the extent that they can never hold creations of artists for themselves. Fuck corporate enslavement of artists and creators. I'd much rather pay $200 a month to be distributed directly to artists than pay a single cent for a game/album provided by Microsoft/Spotify (as an example). Now, some companies are better than others. GOG until recently was something I liked (conceptually anyway, since I don't play games), and Qobuz and Tidal pay their artists better than most. I am OK with these companies. The likes of Amazon and Spotify and Microsoft should be destroyed so badly that they can no longer function in this space. We should spread the word of piracy and digital freedom away from these bastards.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (5 children)

Do you want corps just stealing every new idea and product, cloning it, and muscling out the original inventor without paying them a dime? Because abolishing copyright entirely would be an excellent way to do that.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Someone has never seen Aliexpress..

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Copyright died when information became easily accessible. It's only propped up by those who stand to profit immensely from it. The rest of us not only do not profit from it, it harms us.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

If copyright was abolished overnight, then the corporations with enough money would control everything. The chance for an individual creator to create and control their unique art would disappear. Works of art and entertainment would forever be controlled by giant corporations.

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