Doctor Falkvinge has diagnosed "Mass Psychosis". I would like to present a different "diagnosis" - the copyright wars are not a psychosis, they are the result o

Doctor Falkvinge has diagnosed "Mass Psychosis". I would like to present a different "diagnosis" - the copyright wars are not a psychosis, they are the result of tension between two distinct moral justifications. The first moral justification is that copyright serves the public interest. Under this justification, the ideal form of copyright law may change as circumstances change. For example, the public might conclude that maximum benefit is achieved by having no legal restrictions on the copying of digital music, because the benefit of freely available music would exceed any consequent reduction in the production of new music. The second justification is that the creators of digital content deserve to "own" their content, even after they have published it. Under this justification, there is no reason ever to change the form of copyright, and the issue of public benefit is irrelevant. Reducing copyright on music so that everyone could have more music for less money would just be "stealing", that is, changing the law would itself be an act of "theft", and therefore immoral. I discuss this diagnosis at length in http://thinkinghard.com/blog/ThereAreTwoDistinctJustificationsOfCopyright.html http://thinkinghard.com/blog/ThereAreTwoDistinctJustificatio... .