General Category > General Discussion
Doomed by Copyright
John C:
A lot you will undoubtedly appreciate the research, here, considering there's so little real study on the economic effects of copyright.
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/07/the-hole-in-our-collective-memory-how-copyright-made-mid-century-books-vanish/278209/
Kind of kills the "artists deserve compensation" argument, if nothing else. It's also sort of borne out in comics, notice, with the almost complete absence of, for example, Street and Smith influence on the industry.
Yoc:
Very interesting read.
Thanks John!
narfstar:
Very interesting but those that matter will never take note.
bchat:
--- Quote from: John C on August 17, 2013, 07:29:21 AM ---Kind of kills the "artists deserve compensation" argument, if nothing else.
--- End quote ---
Without any actual numbers that matter, the article does not "kill" anything, but comes across as mostly being anti-copyright propaganda. Who cares how many editions are available of a random Public Domain work (which can be published by anyone) if, combined, a book doesn't sell enough copies to compete with any random copyrighted works? What difference does it make if there is a huge supply of Public Domain works if there is not enough demand to warrant the books being published in the first place?
John C:
You're looking at the wrong part of the chart, I think. If there's nothing on the market from the '60s, say, then those writers are getting absolutely nothing for their troubles. They get no money from licensed products and no exposure from unlicensed products. At best, they get to play trolls under the bridge, hoping someone steals their plot so their lawyers can soak both the offender and them on a lawsuit.
You could also make an argument that the fact that something is in circulation is a sales figure. In a remotely healthy economy, companies don't waste much time reprinting books nobody wants to read. His numbers aren't coming from e-books, after all, where the investment is low.
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