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| Authored by: TiddlyPom on Monday, June 11 2012 @ 07:33 AM EDT |
First of all, sproggit, truly excellent bit of analysis - well thought out and
unfortunately exactly how it is.
To digress from the theme slightly, I would add that both copyrights and patents
stifle innovation these days (both in terms of inventions and media - aka
"big content").
If you look at what patents and copyright were intended to do - they were
intended to promote competition by giving an individual (or company) a LIMITED
monopoly for a SHORT PERIOD on a strictly defined NEW product/process or (in the
case of copyright) a product/book/file etc. What is happening now is that large
established companies (in many cases USA based) are patenting EXISTING IDEAS as
means of either preventing other companies from competing at all (which is what
Apple is doing for instance) or to extort money out of other people for THEIR
IDEAS!
In the case of copyrightable products - the original length was 14 years - which
was not an unreasonable length of time for a person to make a living from a
product until the ideas behing it became part of the public domain. Once the
copyright has expired, this allows other people to take the
story/ideas/music/etc and make use of them without being held to ransom by a
third party. What is happening now is that some items that had been in the
public domain are being 'stolen' by content providers and re-copyrighted so that
they can extort money from people again!
If you look at technical products - many ideas are in widespread use after a few
years - the MPEG format is one of them. By allowing the licensing to continue
(in many cases almost indefinitely) this gives one company POWER over other
companies and to control usage of the idea (and in some cases to control
competition). This is what (for instance) Microsoft is doing - trying to
prevent competitors from gaining any foothold in the market by using the patent
and copyright systems to attack anybody who threatens their monopoly on computer
systems. In this case the patent system is being used for the exact opposite
purpose in which it was intended!
Copyright on media is just as stupid. Having copyright on a piece of music or a
film for more than (say) thirty years is just ridiculous. The system is not
intended to give perpetual influence on the market - as this stifles innovation
in which other people might build on these ideas. Most of the songs in the
1960's should have been due for being out of copyright but all of the "big
content" producers have fought hard to extend the period of copyright again
and again (until we reach the current insane situation where copyright now
extends way beyond a single person's lifetime).
Who does this benefit? A small number of very big companies - not (in most
cases) the original artists (or actors) who made the content. It does not
promote competition or the public at large. It simply helps to preserve the
market status of this few large companies.
Even worse - trade agreement laws (like ACTA) effectively extend USA legislation
to other countries to override local laws and legislation. As a UK citizen, I
am outraged by this as it disenfranchizes me. If I object to a particular piece
of the USA copyright/patent system - as a UK citizen I have no means of voting
out members of the USA House of Representitives or members of the Senate. What
ACTA says therefore is no others countries laws matter except for the USA.
Back on topic - the USA patent laws HAVE to be changed as they are seriously
hurting innovation both in the USA and in other countries (due to the global
influence of USA copyright/patent agreements). Software patents just make the
matter ten times worse as they allow USA software companies to control what ALL
OTHER software producers do across the world and to prevent any challenge to
their market share.
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Support Software Freedom - use GPL licenced software like Linux and LibreOffice
instead of proprietary software like Microsoft Windows/Office or Apple OS/X[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, June 11 2012 @ 05:17 PM EDT |
With communism, as practiced (remember, the KGB was the Czarist secret police
renamed), and, will be the fundamental downfall of the US, too, under whatever
name....Homeland Security is a good candidate...
I make the argument that the economic success of the US was precisely because
the government, to the degree possible, keeps out of the way.
[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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