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[Bohandas]

Plausible, but it's not about what CAN happen, it's about what WILL happen, and I doubt that it'd end up that way.

I'll roll those dice

[TheBiggerFish]

Plausible, but it's not about what CAN happen, it's about what WILL happen, and I doubt that it'd end up that way.

I'll roll those dice

I think you'd be rolling worse than a d10000, with exactly one number being success.

[Culise]

I'm not even certain why an end to copyright would mean an end to professional entertainment.  It's not like professional entertainers did not exist before the 18th century, after all.  Copyright is itself a product of the late early modern era, and people from Aristophanes to Shakespeare, and plenty both before and after, have made their living from entertainment without copyright.  Besides, ruling that copyright infringement is protected speech under the First Amendment won't matter in the vast majority of cases; that crime is a matter for civil courts, and violators won't be taken to court by the various governments.  Fun fact - private entities, such as those that hold most copyrights and would bring a suit against any violation of copyright law, can restrict First Amendment rights all they like.  For instance, if I started spouting obscenities and ended up banned from these forums, I would have no cause to sue Toady One for violating my freedom of speech.  This amendment would only block the government from protecting their copyrights. 

It's also worth noting, on the other side of matters, that you don't even need to eliminate copyright (either directly or by a backdoor).  There are plenty of intermediate reforms that could be made to make copyright law much more fair and equitable, especially when compared to patent law, without completely eliminating it. 

[Bohandas]

There's a difference between plagiarism and copyright infringement

And I'm against plagiarism

[Egan_BW]

Whichever one is better is canon, even if it's not by the original author.

[Culise]

Well, not when there winds up being two different sequels of the same book by two people claiming to be the original author.

While I'll acknowledge your point on one jerk with a scanner-printer (albeit with the caveat that it's mostly a difference of scale rather than kind between that and one jerk with a movable-type press), I feel obliged to point out that identity theft and copyright are not in fact the same thing.  At the very least, you'd end up with two different sequels of the same book by two people claiming to be different people.  We even have that today, albeit without the same distribution methods that would make this a potential issue; we call it "fanfiction."

[Bohandas]

Also 'the country's entertainment needs' smacks of planned economy, and a certain disdain for non-entertainment forms of culture...

It's not like that. More like how it doesn't really matter if we pass a law that fucks over professional steamboat pilots, or wainwrights, or lamplighters, or people that make tools out of animal bones. There's not really a call for those professions anymore anyway.

[TheBiggerFish]

Also 'the country's entertainment needs' smacks of planned economy, and a certain disdain for non-entertainment forms of culture...

It's not like that. More like how it doesn't really matter if we pass a law that fucks over professional steamboat pilots, or wainwrights, or lamplighters, or people that make tools out of animal bones. There's not really a call for those professions anymore anyway.

What the actual flying skeletal CARP?

[Egan_BW]

It's not like that. More like how it doesn't really matter if we pass a law that fucks over professional steamboat pilots, or wainwrights, or lamplighters, or people that make tools out of animal bones. There's not really a call for those professions anymore anyway.

[Citation needed]
Like, I'm sure those real actual people who actually exist and are kind of like you except they like to carve bone would be right pissed if you fucked them over, as they would be right to be, because you fucked over actual people who actually exist and are somewhat similar to you in that they are fellow human beings.

[Bohandas]

It's also worth noting, on the other side of matters, that you don't even need to eliminate copyright (either directly or by a backdoor).  There are plenty of intermediate reforms that could be made to make copyright law much more fair and equitable, especially when compared to patent law, without completely eliminating it.

They've sown the wind; they must reap the whirlwind.

[Culise]

It's also worth noting, on the other side of matters, that you don't even need to eliminate copyright (either directly or by a backdoor).  There are plenty of intermediate reforms that could be made to make copyright law much more fair and equitable, especially when compared to patent law, without completely eliminating it.

They've sown the wind; they must reap the whirlwind.

"Be careful -- with quotations, you can damn anything." -Andre Malraux
_{((Why Malraux instead of Voltaire or Maugham?  Because Voltaire's quote gets used so much more often, and Maugham's might reasonably be taken as an ad hom.))}

[Bohandas]

It's not like that. More like how it doesn't really matter if we pass a law that fucks over professional steamboat pilots, or wainwrights, or lamplighters, or people that make tools out of animal bones. There's not really a call for those professions anymore anyway.

[Citation needed]
Like, I'm sure those real actual people who actually exist and are kind of like you except they like to carve bone would be right pissed if you fucked them over, as they would be right to be, because you fucked over actual people who actually exist and are somewhat similar to you in that they are fellow human beings.

I said professionally. It would be ok to fuck over people who do this professionally. People who like to write or like to carve bone would be unaffected.

EDIT:
Plus I'm sure any concern you raise against bonecarving is going to be more pressing than the need for tools that were obsolete in the copper age.

[Egan_BW]

I said professionally. It would be ok to fuck over people who do this professionally. People who like to write or like to carve bone would be unaffected.

And I never said it would be alright if it only affected professionals. Fucking people over is fucking people over, which is something that does indeed matter, and furthermore just not a thing that is good for you to do.

[Bohandas]

You're still fucking over people with jobs because they stand in the way of your definition of progress.

Maybe we should never have adopted electric lighting because so that the lamplighters wouldn't get fucked over.

[Bohandas]

No, but you shouldn't make laws banning lamps just because lights are the new thing.

No, but at a certain point fire hazards and carbon monoxide pollution and general lack of convenience become a greater concern than hanging on to something that has become wholly unnecessary.