4 ms·

Piracy and Copyright Challenges in 1841 Mirror Those of Today

24 points by Garbage 15y ago

jakeonthemove 15y ago
We are now living in the Golden Age of Content Piracy, what with the proliferation of instant exchange and transfer methods, but piracy of intangible goods has been around for over a century, ever since the invention of the gramophone, or even the printing press before it, and the people in control of said goods were always making a fuss out of others "stealing" them. I don't think the problem will ever be solved - it's not even a problem, it must be integrated into the economic model. The only reason why governments would extend the copyright of intangible content is because, as always, corporations and people with money are pushing for it. Indeed, the original authors may not care (because they have other problems, like being dead), but when the copyright holder is an immortal entity such as a corporation, which sees an opportunity to make profit and maintain control, they will do whatever they can, even if it's against society and against progress. Maybe we should have stricter regulation of corporations or even an "expiration" date, but that would be nigh impossible to implement...
- nitrogen 15y ago
  Maybe we should have stricter regulation of corporations or even an "expiration" date, but that would be nigh impossible to implement... Some corporate entities do have an expiration date. An LLC, for example, may have a maximum 99-year lifespan. Of course, ownership of copyright could probably be transferred to a newly-created entity of the same name when the 99 years are almost up, so it's kind of a moot limitation.
oelewapperke 15y ago
The problem with this argument : xxxx - middle ages : rampant piracy to the point that the only authors are those that successfully beg rich people or organisations to patron them 1709 - copyright in the English commonwealth. Becoming a piano composer and later author becomes a job. Someone who is not independantly wealthy, politically empowered or has patronage can actually survive .... 1841 (or some time before): copyright switches from "honorable protection of authors" to something people "feel obliged to violate"). 1841 ~ 1990 copyright is mostly respected 1990 "the scene" starts up. It's hard to explain what exactly happened -you had to have been there- but it comes down to ftp sites with pirated material coming online 1999 large scale piracy becomes possible for the first time with the release of napster Piracy levels : xxxx - 1709 (english commonwealth law) : 100% piracy 1709 - 1990 : tiny amounts of piracy 1990 - 1999 : very slow rampup of piracy on the internet, filling internet capacity, on ftp and usenet 1999 - ???? : massive online piracy, still ramping upwards Let's run a correlation algorithm on these 2 time series, shall we ? What do you think the result will be ? Massive scale copyright piracy is here because the masses have the option to violate copyright without consequences. I don't get, given the history of the problem/phenomenon how you can claim this to be anything else with a straight face. This of course also means that changes to copyright law will not have any effect of piracy levels. Changes in enforcement, of course, will. Unless you're argument is "I'm a copyright pirate, and I'm not a horrible human being". I fully agree with that, but I would like to make the point that every married drunk I've ever spoken to thinks that way.

24 points by Garbage 15y ago

We are now living in the Golden Age of Content Piracy, what with the proliferation of instant exchange and transfer methods, but piracy of intangible goods has been around for over a century, ever since the invention of the gramophone, or even the printing press before it, and the people in control of said goods were always making a fuss out of others "stealing" them. I don't think the problem will ever be solved - it's not even a problem, it must be integrated into the economic model. The only reason why governments would extend the copyright of intangible content is because, as always, corporations and people with money are pushing for it. Indeed, the original authors may not care (because they have other problems, like being dead), but when the copyright holder is an immortal entity such as a corporation, which sees an opportunity to make profit and maintain control, they will do whatever they can, even if it's against society and against progress. Maybe we should have stricter regulation of corporations or even an "expiration" date, but that would be nigh impossible to implement...

nitrogen 15y ago
Maybe we should have stricter regulation of corporations or even an "expiration" date, but that would be nigh impossible to implement... Some corporate entities do have an expiration date. An LLC, for example, may have a maximum 99-year lifespan. Of course, ownership of copyright could probably be transferred to a newly-created entity of the same name when the 99 years are almost up, so it's kind of a moot limitation.

oelewapperke 15y ago

The problem with this argument : xxxx - middle ages : rampant piracy to the point that the only authors are those that successfully beg rich people or organisations to patron them 1709 - copyright in the English commonwealth. Becoming a piano composer and later author becomes a job. Someone who is not independantly wealthy, politically empowered or has patronage can actually survive .... 1841 (or some time before): copyright switches from "honorable protection of authors" to something people "feel obliged to violate"). 1841 ~ 1990 copyright is mostly respected 1990 "the scene" starts up. It's hard to explain what exactly happened -you had to have been there- but it comes down to ftp sites with pirated material coming online 1999 large scale piracy becomes possible for the first time with the release of napster Piracy levels : xxxx - 1709 (english commonwealth law) : 100% piracy 1709 - 1990 : tiny amounts of piracy 1990 - 1999 : very slow rampup of piracy on the internet, filling internet capacity, on ftp and usenet 1999 - ???? : massive online piracy, still ramping upwards Let's run a correlation algorithm on these 2 time series, shall we ? What do you think the result will be ? Massive scale copyright piracy is here because the masses have the option to violate copyright without consequences. I don't get, given the history of the problem/phenomenon how you can claim this to be anything else with a straight face. This of course also means that changes to copyright law will not have any effect of piracy levels. Changes in enforcement, of course, will. Unless you're argument is "I'm a copyright pirate, and I'm not a horrible human being". I fully agree with that, but I would like to make the point that every married drunk I've ever spoken to thinks that way.