[free-sklyarov] Copyright as a restriction

[Tom]

On Wed, Aug 22, 2001 at 02:21:16AM -0700, Huaiyu Zhu wrote:
> On the face of it, this seems unworkable, because it is hard to decide
> on the recipient of the money, and it is quite easy to imagine various
> kinds of fraud in such systems.  However, both schemes already exist,
> and they work well in their respective domains.

I disagree. the tax-like systems we have currently work pretty bad.
they work, but not very well, and the worst part is that they, too,
share the problem of overly rewarding the major labels (for music).

for example, the distribution of the collected money in the german
system (GEMA) is based on the charts. now everyone who's left his room
this year knows that what is played in clubs, bars and even in shops is
far from that which is in the charts.



> So the question is: Is it possible to reward authors to an adequate
> amount without restricting the distribution and usage of his work?  I
> don't know the answer.  The current copyright laws have many flaws, but
> they seem to be good enough for their purpose.  The evil bit is in laws
> like DMCA that break the intended balance in origianl copyright laws, by
> baning certain types of creative work in order to reward certain other
> types of creative work, rewarding a larging chunk to middlemen in
> between.

I have discussed this issue off list, and I'm willing to pour some time
and even money into running what I call a "field test" - setting up a
new system and opening it up to the general public (both artists and
prospective customers).

that is definitely off-topic, so I suggest anyone interested mail me in
private and we'll carry on the discussion either via CC or if there's
many of you, on a new mailing list.

yes, this may well drive the music mafia out of business if it works.
more specifically: it'll replace them with a better business model.
we'll need some venture capital, but I believe it can even be
profitable beyond putting food on the artists' tables.