!@!Re: [Upd-discuss] a longer term strategy for promoting the public domain?

[Marc Lavallée]

Le 24 Août 2004 20:51, David Basskin a écrit :

> We take a great deal of care to monitor the PD status of musical works,
> and regularly advise those seeking licenses for a PD work that they
> don't need to do so.

Hi Mr. Basskin.

As a copyright worker, what do you really think of the public domain? Is it 
basically a cemetery of planned financial obsolescence?  We all understand 
why creators should be paid, but at the same time many on this list think a 
robust PD is far more important and valuable than a stronger copyright 
system.

Most of what we learn comes from PD knowledge. The skeleton of human culture 
is made out of PD knowledge. What's not in the PD is only available to those 
who can pay. Copyright is therefore most often used as a means of exclusion, 
and the reason invoked is "because creators must be paid". Right...

We obviously need more human knowledge in the PD.  The fact that creators of 
this knowledge are looking for money is not a good reason to restrict access 
to their work. It's possible to put work in the PD and be paid. Does the 
CMRRA know this, or care? If not, why? There might be a time when the CMRRA 
will become obsolete.

Do you still work for the "Canadian Private Copying Collective"? For those who 
have never heard of the CPCC, it sounds like a "fair use" defense group. In 
French, it's "la Société canadienne de perception de la copie privée", which 
translate as the "Canadian Society for Collecting (Money) on Private Copy". 
This is definitely a more accurate name for this interest group.

Because of the CPCC's "good" work, every time I burn a cd with PD content or 
install Gnu/Linux on a new hard drive, I'm obliged to pay fees that go to 
copyright holders for music. I'd rather pay more income taxes to help PD in 
general than pay a hidden tax on blank media that benefits only the canadian 
music industry. Extending the payments of this hidden tax to benefit other 
copyright holders in other areas such as film or television, as the CPCC 
propose to do, would simply reinforce the copyright system and weaken the 
public domain. A better use of this money would be to subsidise free content, 
which would both encourage creation and reinforce the public domain with 
works released under free licenses.

You might argue that without copyright there would be no creation at all. 
therefore no public domain. I don't believe we'd be stupid enough to stop 
creating and sharing...

--
Marc