Slashdot Mirror
Copyright Common Sense From Telecom Ericsson
An anonymous reader sends this excerpt from a story at Torrentfreak:
"Entertainment industry lobby groups often describe file-sharers as thieves who refuse to pay for any type of digital content. But not everyone agrees with this view. Swedish telecom giant Ericsson sees copyright abuse as the underlying cause of the piracy problem. In a brilliant article, Rene Summer, Director of Government and Industry Relations at Ericsson, explains how copyright holders themselves actually breed pirates by clinging to outdated business methods. The most vocal rightsholder groups would ideally turn the Internet into a virtual police state, and at the other end of the spectrum there are groups that want to abolish copyright entirely.'"
It seems that whenever someone has the solution for copyright problems, it always involves somebody else making sacrifices. no surprise, hmm?
-- Flame me and I will happily flame you back. Bring it!
Far too often the pirated product is the superior product.
is the ability to copy something an inaliable right?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech
if somebody else made something, they have a say over how it's used,
"Made something" -- you mean like, if I made a hammer and sold it to you, I could dictate how you use it? Oh, wait, we are not talking about making "something," we are talking about copyright law, which restricts the ability of people to speak freely (yeah, that does include repeating what someone else told you i.e. making a copy). The point of that restriction is to encourage artists and writers; nobody has a natural right to copyrights, it is just a compromise that was originally intended (in America) to ensure that people would have access to literature, art, and so forth.
Palm trees and 8
It's not sensible to abolish copyright. Content is no longer "art", the work of passion of a single person who might do it for the expression of their creativity. You have a lot of people involved in the process of creating what we today consider "good entertainment". From music to movies to games. Trust me, writing games ain't half the fun that playing is. It's a lot of crunch, a lot of stress, a lot of "why the fuck did I decide to get into this industry". These people want to get paid for what they do, and without copyright, there is very little chance that they can be.
What's wrong with copyright is not its existence. It's that copyright got out of control. It is no longer an incentive for the creative mind to create. It's an incentive to NOT create and live off a single cash cow to milk forever. Imagine I'm the greatest composer of all times. Mozart, Beethoven and Lennon rolled into one. And I create that ultimate, timeless and superawesome piece of music that EVERYONE loves. EVERYONE just wants to hear this style suddenly, and nobody can hit what people want as good as I can. But ... why should I keep working, why should I, the best person to ever write music in the history of mankind, write any more? I can milk that song forever. People will go ahead and remix it to get some breadcrumbs of the success, and I'll always cash in when they do. From now 'til I die. And beyond.
What's my incentive to create?
`
Copyright has to exist so people want to get together and create something special as a collective. If they can't reap the rewards for it, they most likely won't do it, or at least it will take a horribly long time since they can only do it in their spare time after they've done something to generate money so they can afford having a hobby. But it has to be limited so the best and brightest actually have a reason to continue creating. If I get more money from one creation than I could spend in a lifetime, why bother working anymore?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Please do not listen to the "Fucking Idiots".
AKA. Those who want to "Abolish" copyright.
Copyright is good. Limited copyright encourages creation of new content. Then the new content gets to move to the public domain
after a period of time. This is awesome. Tons of new stuff pouring into the public domain. Enriching all with its wonders.
What copyright has become though is never ending. Nothing flows into the public domain anymore.
Hell a story not to long ago about the courts pulling shit out of the public domain.
We have to go back to move forward.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
Given Sony's other actions, I would expect them to put an end to such "foolishness" from Ericsson soon.
Until then, keep up the good work Ericsson.
make imaginary.friends COUNT=100 VISIBLE=false
Slashdot posts a lot of these articles legitimizing the pirate way. Be careful of getting into the echo chamber, because a lot of sites won't give you the story from the other side. First of all, I can't even figure out what the article's author is talking about. There's plenty of places to get stuff off the internet via legal means. You'd think that this article was written 10 years ago - before channels started streaming their programs on the internet, before iTunes, before internet radio, before Amazon mp3 downloads and Video-On-Demand. The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of people who pirate because they: get access to stuff they wouldn't have paid for *AND* because they get stuff for free that they would've paid for -- and free is always better than paying. To say that it's about reasonable prices and the ability to buy it on the internet seems ridiculously out of touch with the modern state of affairs. Does this guy know how much piracy there is of, say, the Humble Indie Bundle? That was easy to get on the internet and it was pay whatever you want. But, some people seem to act like "pirates pirate because they don't want to pay" is the conclusion that must be avoided at all costs, even when there's plenty of evidence.
A while back, I remember talking to one friend of mine, and I was happy that Amazon was selling last year's best-selling albums for $5 each (for a limited time). Her response? "Meh, you can get it all for free on the internet." That's right: for many people, it doesn't matter what the price is or whether or not they are available (legally) on the internet because piracy is always free. For many pirates, the internet is like the world's largest free-for-all, like someone gave them a credit card with no limit and they can run through a store and take everything they want. I'm also sensing that this guy doesn't know much about the economics of content creation. But, then, maybe he's just looking out for his own interests: he doesn't want to be in the business of cracking down on piracy and piracy costs his company nothing (in fact, he might even make money if he can charge customers money for their data-plans), so he's willing to be oblivious to the economics of content creation.