It has been said that, while most of us favour progress, many fear change.
<http://blogs.smh.com.au/entertainment/archives/undercover/021899.html>
> As expected, and feared by most authors, booksellers and publishers,
> the Productivity Commission has recommended to the Federal Government
> that it lift all restrictions on parallel importation of books.
Copyright is an anachronism: though fear is natural, change is
inevitable. In change is opportunity. What opportunities does this
change offer?
The way I see it, Australia is a small culture, under sustained attack
from larger ones. Whatever the genesis of those attacks, the effect is
of cultural warfare. One effective defence might be to give away our
cultural produce: to make Australian arts the most cost-effective in the
world to consume. Anything that can be presented digitally, we should
offer free to the world.
How to compensate the creators? A small fee (from the nation) for each
download seems appropriate. How much does an author get for each book;
how much a songwriter or performer for each track on each CD? Answers to
those questions provide a starting point for calculating a fee.
This might seem to cut out the publishers and manufacturers, but text is
not a book; a download is not a DVD. We may well find that free
downloads increase the market for physical products, particularly for
lesser-known artists.
Given the need for legislation and (probably) taxpayer funding, I see no
way to avoid government involvement. Market Fundamentalists will hate
that, though the market capitalist potential is substantial.
All we need is the will.
--
David Boxall | The more that wise people learn
| The more they come to appreciate
http://david.boxall.name | How much they don't know.
--Confucius