Pirate Party Leader: Copyright Laws Ridiculous

smitty777 writes "Rick Falkvinge, better known as the leader for Sweden's Pirate Party, recommends doing away with copyright laws since no one is following them anyway. FTA: '...he uses examples from the buttonmakers guild in 1600s France to justify eliminating the five major parts of copyright law today. The first two are cover duplication and public performance, and piracy today has ruined those. The next two cover rights of the creator to get credit and prevent other performances, satires, remixes, etc they don't like. Falkvinge says giving credit is important, but not worthy of a law. Finally, "neighboring rights" are used by the music industry to block duplication, which Falkvinge rejects.'"

Comments

He seems to confuse the purpose of copyright

[icebike]

Copyright laws are to preserve the right of copying the work for the copyright holder. Period.
Giving credit doesn't even enter into it. Satire and remixes don't matter and are already protected anyway.

That the laws have failed miserably to preserve the author/rightsholder's Right to copy and profit from their work is
sad but true in this digital age.

Still, it seems a tad self serving for those that smashed into storefronts to suggest repealing laws against looting on
the grounds that everyone is doing it. Is a TV set or Microwave oven that much different than a song or a book?
The basic premise that a work in digital form can be replicated without depleting the inventory of the author is simply mistaking the
the form for the function. The form may be bits and bytes. The function is someone's work product. Unless he proposes putting
all authors and on the public teat, I am at a loss to see how anyone can keep writing books any more than I can see why anyone
would stock more microwave's in a store from which anyone take anything they wanted.