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

[pauraque]

Only skimmed it, but:

Places like I-Tunes would go out of business fairly quickly since if you can get something fee, why buy it?

What planet does this fella live on? o_O

[sarken]

NO NO NO NO NO, NOT DEAN WESLEY SMITH. DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE, MAN. YOU WROTE ONE OF MY FAVORITE TREK NOVELS. :(

[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.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

It's not the demand end that would be the problem in a society without copyright. It's the supply end. Absent copyright, there would be far less professional-quality intellectual product available, because the producers of such material wouldn't bother to make it if they couldn't be reasonably sure of being paid for it.

[fashionbeast.livejournal.com]

One minute after the sudden vanishing of all copyright laws around the world, not a lot would be happening except for many experienced writers suddenly realizing they are out of a job.

PROBLEM ONE: Many experienced writers earn their living from non-copyrighted material. They're called (ironically) copywriters, and their jobs are to a certain extent more stable than writers dependent on copyright. Do you think the person who wrote the back cover copy on the latest Charlaine Harris novel is bringing in fat royalty checks?

And many publishers would be shouting orders to try to get copies of certain things.
PROBLEM TWO: Publishers don't seem to have any problem with making money off of public domain material. It still costs me as much to fill up my tank as it does to buy a new copy of War and Peace.

In the United States, copyright is a constitutional right, actually written into the document. If you don’t believe me, go read it.
PROBLEM THREE: Oh come on now, this is just sloppy. If you can't quote your key source I refuse to believe it.

Writers could no longer make a living.
PROBLEM FOUR: Cory Doctorow seems to be doing just fine. Again, what he means to say here is FICTION WRITERS.

In the brave new world of no copyright, I could write Trek with Donald Duck as the main character fighting Sherlock Holmes and no one could stop me as long as I put the little trademark symbols beside the names.
PROBLEM FIVE: Uh, no you couldn't. You're misunderstanding the difference between copyright and trademarks. Also Sherlock Holmes is not trademarked and in the public domain, so you can in fact do whatever you want with him.

So another example would be that you build a house, and your neighbor likes your new house better and just moves in and takes it because you don’t own it and never can own it because there are no property laws.
PROBLEM SIX: This is actually a terrible metaphor.

So, if all copyright laws suddenly vanished around the world, there would simply be no way for anyone to make any money off of anything written.
PROBLEM SEVEN: Copyright laws are different in every country; to say that the disappearance of copyright law the world over would affect all writers the same way is naive.

99% of all beginning writers wouldn’t have a clue anything was wrong because they have yet to learn copyright.
PROBLEM EIGHT: 99% of beginning writers aren't good enough to be published yet; copyright is actually not the most immediate concern right now for them.

I'm going to stop now, because debunking this entire play by play would keep me up for another four hours and I've got to work in five.

[nicole-anell.livejournal.com]

In the brave new world of no copyright, I could write Trek with Donald Duck as the main character fighting Sherlock Holmes and no one could stop me as long as I put the little trademark symbols beside the names.
1. The problem with that is...? I'd like to see someone discuss copyright without immediately falling back on OH GOD NOES FANFIC.
2. Sherlock Holmes is public domain, you idiot.