Re: [LAU] ASCAP Assails Free-Culture, Digital-Rights Groups

Has this thread distinguished between Copyright and Patent?
As I understand, it is the latter that makes ideas property.

P.A.

Dave Phillips wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> <caffeinated_rant>
> I have an observation re: this thread: People who don't hold copyrights
> or patents typically don't understand the full significance of copyright
> or patent laws because they never have to. Those of us who do hold them
> regard the issue differently. My advice, try making your living from
> royalties for a few years, then let me know how you feel about watching
> someone else appropriate your work. Copyright means literally that the
> holder owns the right to make copies, not you or anyone else.
>
> I'm reminded of my mother's oft-repeated adage, "What part of 'NO' don't
> you understand ?".
>
> The assertion that copyright is not an incentive to creativity is
> correct, of course, though its assurance of payment might function as a
> spur to take on a job and get it done. I wonder sometimes, how many
> members of this list actually make their living as creative artists ?
> Because unless that's what you're doing for your livelihood (i.e. buying
> groceries and clothes for your kids, paying the rent, paying the utility
> bills, etc) then I suggest that it's simply too easy to make blanket
> assumptions about the processes by which an artist produces work for
> payment.
>
> Btw, if anyone would like to get a more realistic sense of that Better
> World Without Copyright, I suggest you read the memoirs of Hector
> Berlioz. And let us not forget Disney's famous appropriation of
> Stravinsky's work. Yep, the same Disney who perverted the existing
> copyright law, aided & abetted by Sonny Bono. If international copyright
> law had covered Russia then Igor would have got a fair cut of the
> royalty pie from Disney's Fantasia. As it happened, Disney basically
> said "You're screwed" because he knew Stravinsky had no legal recourse.
> At least Stravinsky got in a last bite: When asked if he had any comment
> on the film he referred to it as an "imbecility". I'll guess that he
> wouldn't have liked Snow White either.
>
> Yeh, yeh, yeh, artists made art before copyright. What they didn't make
> was as much money as they now stand to make because of it. Ezra Pound
> once wrote that knowing a little hunger isn't necessarily bad for an
> artist, but starvation is definitely not good. Or maybe we think someone
> makes "enough" or too much money, so we can justify the theft of
> copyrighted material. Okay, why stop there, why not steal rich people's
> cars ? They probably have enough of them , and they can certainly afford
> more, so why not steal their cars ? Oh that's right, cars are different
> from software. We can take a copy of the software and the original
> remains, so that makes the theft okay. No, it does not, and that is
> exactly why we have copyright law. The car *can't* be copied without
> undue effort, the software can. The ease of reproducibility calls for
> further protection *if* it is an agreed-upon principle that the maker of
> the work is due the rights to its copying. At this time that's the law,
> at least here in the US. You're welcome to try to change it, but you're
> not welcome to break it as though it doesn't exist or because you
> believe it's unjust. Of course we can go ahead and break whatever laws
> we feel like breaking, whether we understand and accept the consequences
> or not, but if we're serious about changing those conditions then we
> ought to engage in the proper process towards that end.
>
> Btw, I'm not playing "holier than thou" here. I've downloaded my share
> of copyrighted material, but I don't illude myself about its ethicality.
> Nor do I flog myself over the deed.
> </caffeinated_rant>
>
> Best,
>
> dp
>
> "They were artists in their own right, Andrea said, intent on
> restructuring reality, and the New Jerusalem was a fine place indeed,
> free of overdrafts and disgruntled landlords and the need to find
> someone to cover the evening's bill."
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>
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Received on Thu Jul 1 04:15:02 2010