On Twitter, @antonyjohnston said "it's a glorious day when major retailers are competing for the right to boast the largest DRM-free catalogue...", and included a link to Apple's boast. Amazon is apparently making the same boast recently, and I and others are wondering where eMusic.com stands in the "biggest" queue.
I couldn't agree more. It is indeed a glorious day, and it's a sign that an industry that can appear so completely clueless at one point can actually turn around and have a clue, in less than a lifetime.
Now we just need to have folks competing for who can support copyright reform the most.
Showing posts with label Copyfight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Copyfight. Show all posts
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Friday, October 12, 2007
Copyright Promotes Creation?
Maybe I'm a little slow on the uptake, but I got to thinking again today about why we have copyright. The constitution says "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;" and I'm okay with that. I'd prefer the "limited Times" actually be limited, and the current term doesn't seem at all limited to me, both in how long it is, and in how it keeps getting longer to prevent anything from falling into the public domain.
But then it struck me. It says copyright is to promote progress. Typically that's interpreted to mean that copyright is intended to encourage creativity, by allowing creators an exclusive market for their creations. Now will somebody please tell me this:
How on earth can I be encouraged to create something more, 70 years after I'm dead?!
Copyright term currently extends to the life of the author plus 70 years. I'd personally prefer a copyright term (preferably registered, but that's another topic) of, say, 20 years plus a 20 year renewal, but I suppose you could make a case for life-of-the-author.
But how, pray tell, can I be encouraged to create something more, after I'm dead? How can granting copyright privileges to my heirs encourage me to continue creating (beyond the grave)? Is it seriously a problem that we wouldn't have 80-yr-olds continuing their art if they didn't know that their grandchildren would be allowed to fight over the proceeds?
If copyright didn't exist, I agree that creation could suffer. Creators would need day jobs, most current full-time creators would create less, and some wouldn't create at all. But in my view, requiring creators to come up with something new every 20-40 years seems like a reasonable balance between giving them opportunity for compensation on the one hand, and allowing for public ownership of created works on the other (think Beethoven, Shakespear, etc., that nobody needs permission to play with).
Yes. I want copyright reform.
But then it struck me. It says copyright is to promote progress. Typically that's interpreted to mean that copyright is intended to encourage creativity, by allowing creators an exclusive market for their creations. Now will somebody please tell me this:
How on earth can I be encouraged to create something more, 70 years after I'm dead?!
Copyright term currently extends to the life of the author plus 70 years. I'd personally prefer a copyright term (preferably registered, but that's another topic) of, say, 20 years plus a 20 year renewal, but I suppose you could make a case for life-of-the-author.
But how, pray tell, can I be encouraged to create something more, after I'm dead? How can granting copyright privileges to my heirs encourage me to continue creating (beyond the grave)? Is it seriously a problem that we wouldn't have 80-yr-olds continuing their art if they didn't know that their grandchildren would be allowed to fight over the proceeds?
If copyright didn't exist, I agree that creation could suffer. Creators would need day jobs, most current full-time creators would create less, and some wouldn't create at all. But in my view, requiring creators to come up with something new every 20-40 years seems like a reasonable balance between giving them opportunity for compensation on the one hand, and allowing for public ownership of created works on the other (think Beethoven, Shakespear, etc., that nobody needs permission to play with).
Yes. I want copyright reform.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
eMusic.com Does Audiobooks!
I've been on eMusic.com for a while now, and am still enjoying it, getting to explore a host of new music for a very reasonable price. Imagine my surprise, then, when I went onto their website a week or so ago, and saw that they're now offering audiobooks.
It's a separate subscription and a separate price, but for $10/month, you can download an audiobook in MP3 format, completely free of DRM. (Which means I can copy it and listen to it on any of my computers as well as my MP3 player, which doesn't do DRM, thank you very much.)
As I'm not terribly literate, I can't really say much about their selection, but in half an hour's looking, I found plenty to pique my interest. I've pulled down Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and C. S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters so far, and have them in my queue along with my podcasts and Librivox books, and while something tells me I shouldn't be quite this excited about this, I've got a queue of books that I want a year or more long, and I'm really planning to enjoy this service.
It's a separate subscription and a separate price, but for $10/month, you can download an audiobook in MP3 format, completely free of DRM. (Which means I can copy it and listen to it on any of my computers as well as my MP3 player, which doesn't do DRM, thank you very much.)
As I'm not terribly literate, I can't really say much about their selection, but in half an hour's looking, I found plenty to pique my interest. I've pulled down Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and C. S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters so far, and have them in my queue along with my podcasts and Librivox books, and while something tells me I shouldn't be quite this excited about this, I've got a queue of books that I want a year or more long, and I'm really planning to enjoy this service.
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