I want to live in your dystopia, man:

[skywaterblue]

Man writes scaremongering post about how life without copyright would SUCK.

I wrote this big fucking essay/rant about how dumb this is, but I probably won't have internet access to fight people online who are wrong. Suffice to say: people don't buy shit because it's copyrighted. If they did, every fucking computer in the universe would run Linux and Firefox and no one would remember what Microsoft did because Steve Jobs would be some unknown coder in Palo Alta.

They buy/read/consume because it's aspirational to do so.

Comments

[bethos.livejournal.com]

Also, it's not a black and white issue where copyrights as they are now = THE WAY, because copyrights as they are now are fucking ridiculous. The copyright period in this country was not THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR PLUS SEVENTY YEARS when copyright was conceived as a concept.

Also, basically, shut up, that dude.

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I'd vote for the Pirate Party, but I'm actually not as radical as people think I am. I just think two things should happen:

One, copywrited material must be OWNED by an actual, living person/shared percentage of named people. Then, corporations can lease it from someone, but they can't outright buy it through shitty work-for-hire situations.

Two, they're too fucking long, no one needs their kids to get fat off the rights to granddaddy's work. Shorten that to like, life of the author + 25 and if after it's done, Timmy doesn't have a real job, that's tough shit.

[bethos.livejournal.com]

I like that idea, although I think that life + 25 is still on the long side. I'd be okay with life, personally. Or life + 10. I appreciate that copyright holders deserve a legacy, but I mean ... come on. Copyright terms used to be like 28 years.

I really like the idea of lease-only copyright though. Where the copyright actually vests in its creator. I know property law hates restrictions on alienation, but come on.

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't mind life either, but I kind of respect the idea that a creator might have a spouse, or a dependent who might otherwise have no income. It seems cruel, if someone is living off royalties and copyright payments, to yank that away.

Ten years is a good compromise, though.

Intellectual property should rest with the intellect that created it. Maybe when you get your law degree you can work it.

[kadymae.livejournal.com]

Two, they're too fucking long, no one needs their kids to get fat off the rights to granddaddy's work. Shorten that to like, life of the author + 25 and if after it's done, Timmy doesn't have a real job, that's tough shit.

This, thank you.

Warren Ellis and I went 'round on this once and I mentioned that my dad's name is on the patents for several technologies for things that are now common video technologies but that because cause he created them while a Civil Servant, he had to sign the rights over to the US Government.

WE responded that didn't I wish I had some of that money now.

I responded that I wasn't raised to be a sponge off of my father's achievements but to make my own way in the world.

WE replied that the next time I said something like that I was asking for a banning.

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

Almost all the REALLY acrimonious conversations I've ever had with people on copyright law have been people who make comics.

I find this ironic, and really ignorant as fuck.