Ask HN: Should we abandon copyright?
This might not be a very popular opinion but the more I think of it the more I believe we should abandon copyright.
You can argue for example that someone took a lot of time to create something and that a copycat can profit from this in an unfair manner. But most of the time a copy is not as good as the original and most people don't want a copy but even pay extra for the original.
Since there are a lot of smart people on HN I would like to ask this question here: should we abandon copyright?
Note: I don't believe this will ever happen, but I wonder what the upsides will be.
8 comments
[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 27.8 ms ] threadCopyright doesn't save us from knock-offs. The hundreds of "Revengers: Age of Boltron" DVDs in the bargain bin at Walmart is testament to that. Those are legal.
What copyright prevents is Cinemark buying a copy of Age of Ultron for $20 and then making hundreds of copies and charging ten bucks a seat to watch them in hundreds of theaters nationwide, never sending Marvel Studios another penny beyond that initial $20.
Helping consumers avoid knock-offs is what trademarks are for.
As you say, I think it's the fair and just thing to do and people justly get upset when others steal the results of their hard work. (Even if you're not removing a physical object, violating copyright is still stealing and should be treated as such.)
To answer your quality objection: unfortunately, I can't agree with your observation. While some well-to-do people from some cultures may indeed be willing to spend more money for an "original", that is not the case for many, many other people I know. Either because they don't [think they] have the money for the original, or because the original is hard[er] to get, or because they simply don't care about quality as long as it's "good enough". In many countries and cultures, the whole concept of copyright and even property is not as clearly defined in the minds of the people as it is in most parts of the West.
Why else do you think fake Adidas/Nike/Puma shoes flood the market the way they do? And in fact, I once saw a Chinese-made lock that was the copy of a copy of a copy of an originally British brand. If everybody would prefer the original, how did that ever reach the market?
The question for me would be whether there are ways of achieving the same effect without having to completely abandon copyright?
It’s an invention from the era where access to a printing press was limited and doesn’t really match today’s world where it is difficult or impossible to participate and avoid making copies, which is the opposite.