[LINK] Is copyright dead? [WAS: Special Report: The Future Of File Sharing]

[David Boxall]

On Sat, 6 Jun 2009 at 14:27:46 +0200 Kim Holburn wrote:
> ... I think that copyright and artists' rights may be quite separate issues ...
I don't think couching the issue in terms of "rights" is constructive. 
When "rights" enter the picture, debate tends to get emotional and 
absolute. The "rights" take on a life of their own, pushing everything 
else into the background.
> ... With copyright as it is now we  
> see artists get ripped off by publishers all the time.   And copyright  
> has had to change with almost each invention that affected it.   
> Dispensing with copyright, no; changing it, guaranteed.

I have to disagree. The problem I see is not so much in the "right" as 
in the "copy". Copyright interferes with copying content to different 
devices and into different forms. The market has evolved beyond the 
concept fundamental to copyright. I doubt any change can remedy that 
deficiency.
 
-- 
David Boxall                         | ignorance more frequently
                                     | begets confidence than does
                                     | knowledge
                                     | --Charles Darwin (introduction
                                     |  to 'The Descent of Man' 1871)