Comments on: SOPA is the Symptom, Copyright is the Disease: The SOPA wakeup call to ABOLISH COPYRIGHT

By: jameshogg

jameshogg — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 00:38:39 +0000

In fact, if they do try to lobby such a freedom-crushing proposal, it surely must indicate that it is on the right side of history.

By: jameshogg

jameshogg — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 00:37:28 +0000

Stephen, if you haven’t already, check out Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, and other crowdfunding websites, especially the all-or-nothing models. They are going to be the powerful solution to the problem of “incentives” because they force all consumers to pay their money simultaneously in order for content to be released at all. This means that the creators will not care if their work is copied because they already have their incentives. And as long as the free market persists, history will be on this business model’s side because artists will inevitably make more money from it than they would under copyright-based incentives. But I must warn you: there is a high probability that the copyright industries will see this business model as a threat to theirs and will perhaps in the future try to lobby to make crowdfunding illegal. You must raise hell about this if it does happen. There is NOT going to be a get-rich-quick problem with sites like Kickstarter, especially if artists decide to make a creative work and then ask the crowd for incentives, because that way it is up to them if they want to keep all of them as profit or invest them into another project, creating a system where Kickstarter can be absolutely sure that the product is made and nobody is going to be ripped off.

And about 90% of projects on Kickstarter belong with the creative industries such as music, film and books. It is surely indicating the start of something big.

By: You can have Internet and free sharing of information, or you can have Working Copyright. You CANNOT have both. « Sharing is Liberty

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 08:05:17 +0000

[...] copyright. It is impossible to have both at the same time. I first read about this concept via Stephan Kinsella a while back but it took me a long time before I understood what he meant. I understand it now so I [...]

By: I am Outraged. They’re abusing the 1994 TRIPS agreement to Close down 2ch.net Matome Sites. « Visual Novel Aer

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 06:52:53 +0000

[...] Copyright is not broken. Copyright was invented for the very purpose of censorship. It does not need a reform. It is working perfectly. It is moving back towards its original purpose -> That is, Censorship. “the copyright industry is actually right that these ridiculous laws are needed to sustain the copyright monopoly. General-purpose networked computers, free and anonymous speech, and sustained civil liberties make it impossible to maintain this distribution monopoly of digitizable information. As technical progress can’t be legislated against, basic civil liberties would have to go to maintain the crumbling monopoly. And these are the laws we’re seeing on the table.” – Rick Valkvinge (founder of the Pirate Party). See SOPA is the Symptom, Copyright is the Disease: The SOPA wakeup call to ABOLISH COPYRIGHT [...]

By: Slim934

Slim934 — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:12:41 +0000

Nathan,

If you head over to the mises.org website and search under I believe the Essays in Political Economy there is an essay called something like “privatization of the spectrum”.

It’s been awhile since I read it but it’s quite a good read.

By: Links Roundup for ACTA and more « Living Libre

Links Roundup for ACTA and more « Living Libre — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:51:37 +0000

[...] Kinsella of the Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom claimed that ‘SOPA is the symptom, copyright is the disease’ and that many of the problems with PIPA/SOPA are endemic to copyright [...]

By: Nathan

Nathan — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:49:40 +0000

Has there been any literature from Mises.com on spectrum rights? I feel as though spectrum shares many of the characteristics of IP. The most compelling argument being that enforcement is virtually impossible without a government entity.

In the event that I think I have a better use of a section of spectrum I have an incentive to build a more robust system that can filter out interference from current users, send more information over the same band, and expand available “property” space through technological innovation. The current radio system sends a paltry amount of information, over a large amount of spectrum, at a very low quality, largely for use in legacy devices by broadcasters who have no incentive to improve due to government granted monopoly.

By: Cory

Cory — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 05:14:50 +0000

Do you believe a person owns the fruits of their labor? I believe that novels, music, art, and even computer programs are as much private property as physical objects purchased. The person who made the effort to create them has the right to profit from them, assign them to others, or to give them away, as they see fit.

However, as all these things are essentially ideas, I also believe copyrights and patents should expire after a period of time – it is unnatural to own an idea.

I think this dichotomy is the core of the disagreement over whether copyright should exist or not. I’m comfortable with the contradiction, and support copyright for now. That the open source community is finding ways for people to make a living giving things away for free suggests that in the future we can stike a balance without the imperfect tool of copyright, but there are still many areas where this model hasn’t been successfully adapted yet. Until it is, a government enforced, time-limited monopoly on the fruits of one’s labor is a necessary evil, and we must continue to stand against those who would abuse it.

By: Stephan Kinsella

Stephan Kinsella — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:49:44 +0000

I didn’t have time to go into all of it here (I have elsewhere–google it) but censorship was definitley part of the original Stationer’s guild monopoly etc., and the statute of anne resulted from that, AND copyright even today RESULTS in censorship (google my name and copyright horror stories)–even the Supreme Court in defending it admits this. You are speaking nonsense here.

By: Curt Howland

Curt Howland — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:38:21 +0000

JdL,

I have created a great deal that was and is worthwhile. And I’ve figured out make money from it without using copyright or patent.

Your lack of imagination isn’t my problem.