I mean Copyright as “intellectual property which gives the owner the exclusive right to copy and distribute the creative work”

  • Ghast@lemmy.ml
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    2 years ago

    I became a copyright abolitionist after watching this Ted Talk.

    The more I read about copyright, the more I think that scrapping the whole idea will work better than trying to fix the system.

    The most challenging part of the whole concept is always trying to remove people’s knee-jerk assumptions. Copyright abolition does not mean:

    • creators shouldn’t get paid
    • art won’t get made
    • content won’t get hosted
    • all creators will be poor

    People copy naturally, and copyright laws stop this process, stopping people from creating new works.

    Current copyright laws don’t work tremendously well to get money to creators. Code and art ends up owned by corporations, and the actual creators receive very little in many cases. The number of starving artists who self-publish and rake in a good living only due to copyright law represent rounding error.

    Industries also have a number of ways to self-police without these laws. Clothing companies will often make money by being first to the table with a new, fashionable line, which will go out of style later, so they don’t need copyright laws. Board games have very little copyright protection, but still make money, partly due to branding (who wants a knock-off Cards Against Humanity, just to save €3?).

    After going this route, released my own stuff without copyright. The videos I make are all CC0, and I re-released my TTRPG under the GPL.