3 ms·

People have been publishing their work for thousands of years before IP even existed. We don't know if the system we have is the best one we could have, I doubt

People have been publishing their work for thousands of years before IP even existed. We don't know if the system we have is the best one we could have, I doubt it though.

charonn0 2y ago
Historically most artistic works, books, etc. were privately commissioned and one-of-a-kind. Publishing as we understand the idea came with the printing press and widespread literacy.
- EvanAnderson 2y ago
  Publishing as we understand the idea came about at a time when physical scarcity was the limiting factor in dissemination of copies of works. That time has passed. We're in a completely different world now. The elevator operators and buggy whip manufacturers of the publishing industry would like things to remain the way they have been.
  - charonn0 2y ago
    I don't think the issue is the scarcity of copies, but rather the scarcity of artists. Not just anyone can write a book that people want to copy, and we should encourage and reward those that can and do.
    - EvanAnderson 2y ago
      Filtering the crap is now orthogonal to the concern that, historically, information dissemination has been tied to physical scarcity. Those concerns ran together because it cost money to publish something. It doesn't now. We can come up with new models that compensate creators more directly. We can also come up with models that don't involve effectively killing any ability to build upon existing culture in the time-scale of a human life. What came before isn't how it has to be, except that the interest that profit from the current system want it to remain so.
os2warpman 2y ago
Some of the earliest accounts of proto-IP laws date from Ancient Greece, with protections for new works (particularly recipes and plays?!?) being granted to their creators for a set period of time. Then you have guilds, trade marks, potter's marks, royal warrants, etc... all "IP" protections of their days. Would open-source license violations be possible to penalize if not for intellectual property laws?

People have been publishing their work for thousands of years before IP even existed. We don't know if the system we have is the best one we could have, I doubt it though.

charonn0 2y ago

Historically most artistic works, books, etc. were privately commissioned and one-of-a-kind. Publishing as we understand the idea came with the printing press and widespread literacy.

EvanAnderson 2y ago
Publishing as we understand the idea came about at a time when physical scarcity was the limiting factor in dissemination of copies of works. That time has passed. We're in a completely different world now. The elevator operators and buggy whip manufacturers of the publishing industry would like things to remain the way they have been.
- charonn0 2y ago
  I don't think the issue is the scarcity of copies, but rather the scarcity of artists. Not just anyone can write a book that people want to copy, and we should encourage and reward those that can and do.
  - EvanAnderson 2y ago
    Filtering the crap is now orthogonal to the concern that, historically, information dissemination has been tied to physical scarcity. Those concerns ran together because it cost money to publish something. It doesn't now. We can come up with new models that compensate creators more directly. We can also come up with models that don't involve effectively killing any ability to build upon existing culture in the time-scale of a human life. What came before isn't how it has to be, except that the interest that profit from the current system want it to remain so.

os2warpman 2y ago

Some of the earliest accounts of proto-IP laws date from Ancient Greece, with protections for new works (particularly recipes and plays?!?) being granted to their creators for a set period of time. Then you have guilds, trade marks, potter's marks, royal warrants, etc... all "IP" protections of their days. Would open-source license violations be possible to penalize if not for intellectual property laws?