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What are people's opinions on removing copyright laws? Not just copyrights on music and movies, but also all copyrights on software, computer graphics, wordpres

What are people's opinions on removing copyright laws? Not just copyrights on music and movies, but also all copyrights on software, computer graphics, wordpress themes, etc. Is this something that the YCombinator community is behind?

ericd 15y ago
Abolishing copyright completely is an extreme position even here, I think. What most people are pulling for is shortening copyright from it's currently obscenely long term.
dlitz 15y ago
Jonathan Coulton said it well: "I believe in copyright. I benefit from it. I don’t want it to go away. I love that we have laws and people to enforce them. But if I had to give up one thing, if I had to choose between copyright and the wild west, semi-lawless, innovation-fest that is the internet? I’ll take the internet every time." http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2012/01/21/megaupload/ http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2012/01/21/megaupload/
- signalsignal 15y ago
  I can see indie filmmakers being innovative, but I fail to see how Megaupload was innovative. Yet noone has made the argument or the claim that it was, though it is obviously more important than the arts to the people on this forum. As though it was a representation of the innovation of the Internet and now the rallying cry for entrepreneurship. Is the Internet really only about data-center storage and distributing other people's content without compensation to the authors or producers? Is Ycombinator really going to become a forum about evading laws due to loopholes like Megaupload was?
tomjen3 15y ago
I think ten years would make sense -- you would constantly have to produce new stuff in order to make money which is what copyright is about. On the other hand copyright may not be enforceable much longer (it could be argued that it is already unenforceable) and I would prefer to give up copyrights before the internet.

ericd 15y ago

Abolishing copyright completely is an extreme position even here, I think. What most people are pulling for is shortening copyright from it's currently obscenely long term.

dlitz 15y ago

Jonathan Coulton said it well: "I believe in copyright. I benefit from it. I don’t want it to go away. I love that we have laws and people to enforce them. But if I had to give up one thing, if I had to choose between copyright and the wild west, semi-lawless, innovation-fest that is the internet? I’ll take the internet every time." http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2012/01/21/megaupload/ http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2012/01/21/megaupload/

signalsignal 15y ago
I can see indie filmmakers being innovative, but I fail to see how Megaupload was innovative. Yet noone has made the argument or the claim that it was, though it is obviously more important than the arts to the people on this forum. As though it was a representation of the innovation of the Internet and now the rallying cry for entrepreneurship. Is the Internet really only about data-center storage and distributing other people's content without compensation to the authors or producers? Is Ycombinator really going to become a forum about evading laws due to loopholes like Megaupload was?

tomjen3 15y ago

I think ten years would make sense -- you would constantly have to produce new stuff in order to make money which is what copyright is about. On the other hand copyright may not be enforceable much longer (it could be argued that it is already unenforceable) and I would prefer to give up copyrights before the internet.