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Copyright is an invented right drawn from nothing So are all property rights. The "common sense" ownership of pen and paper that you mentioned is that if I'm b

Copyright is an invented right drawn from nothing So are all property rights. The "common sense" ownership of pen and paper that you mentioned is that if I'm bigger than you, or I have a better weapon, or I have more friends, then your pen and paper are now mine. Fortunately for almost everyone, as a society we have learned to cooperate better than that.

michaelmrose 7y ago
We can't both eat the same sandwich we can both read the same epub.
- Silhouette 7y ago
  Only if someone wrote that epub in the first place, though.
  - michaelmrose 7y ago
    True and the equipment required to create the book in most cases is now down to about $200. Access to the internet comes at a comparatively princely $60 a month. In a lot of first world nations education and health are gratis. Donations can be solicited to fund the creation of desirable works. I wonder if copyright went away people would still write books?
    - Silhouette 7y ago
      I wonder if copyright went away people would still write books? I respectfully suggest that you're asking the wrong question. Obviously some books would still be written. More insightful questions might be whether people would still write as many books, whether the books written would be as good, and whether books would reach as large an audience as happens under copyright. I contend that it is utterly implausible that an entirely voluntary or even patronage-based system would come anywhere close to our current situation by any of those metrics. The vast majority of the cost of making a book has nothing to do with buying a laptop or paying for an Internet connection. It comes from the time and skill and creativity and understanding of the author. Depending on the nature of the book, it also comes from the time and skill and creativity and understanding of proofreaders, editors, illustrators, graphic designers, researchers...

michaelmrose 7y ago

We can't both eat the same sandwich we can both read the same epub.

Silhouette 7y ago
Only if someone wrote that epub in the first place, though.
- michaelmrose 7y ago
  True and the equipment required to create the book in most cases is now down to about $200. Access to the internet comes at a comparatively princely $60 a month. In a lot of first world nations education and health are gratis. Donations can be solicited to fund the creation of desirable works. I wonder if copyright went away people would still write books?
  - Silhouette 7y ago
    I wonder if copyright went away people would still write books? I respectfully suggest that you're asking the wrong question. Obviously some books would still be written. More insightful questions might be whether people would still write as many books, whether the books written would be as good, and whether books would reach as large an audience as happens under copyright. I contend that it is utterly implausible that an entirely voluntary or even patronage-based system would come anywhere close to our current situation by any of those metrics. The vast majority of the cost of making a book has nothing to do with buying a laptop or paying for an Internet connection. It comes from the time and skill and creativity and understanding of the author. Depending on the nature of the book, it also comes from the time and skill and creativity and understanding of proofreaders, editors, illustrators, graphic designers, researchers...