[free-sklyarov] reasons for restriction of competition

[Bob Smart]

On Monday 20 August 2001 22:40, you wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 20, 2001 at 08:14:13PM -0700, Bob Smart wrote:
> > It sure is, and it sure may.  Let's see who's still reciting Baywatch
> > scripts a couple of thousand years from today.
>
> that strikes me as an interesting point. is anyone aware of any studies
> (please give me links and/or citations) that shows the amount of "junk"
> literature in, say, ancient greek or even europe before copyright?
>
> mostly, I'd like to know whether junk is a natural human event or a
> byproduct of copyright. several respectable authors claim that for
> patents, junk inventions ARE a side-effect of them.

I don't know of any studies about it, although I would also like to be made 
aware of them if they exist.

My guess would be that the total "junk" fraction would be pretty low, indeed, 
especially before the advent of things like printing...because it takes 
significant effort to propagate and preserve literature (or music, or art) 
and why would anybody bother for "junk"?  Quite a bit may have been produced, 
due to nothing more than Sturgeon's Law, but I doubt any of it survived very 
long, even in its own day.

-- 

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