[Upd-discuss] #2 Copyright Brief History

[Jean-Baptiste Soufron]

Le 7 sept. 04, =E0 18:35, Michael Hart a =E9crit :

>
> On Mon, 6 Sep 2004, Fran=E7ois Briatte wrote:
>
>> (Quotes were cut down.)
>>
>>>> "Much of the U.S. criticism of the UN stems from the fact that the=20=

>>>> United States pays a disproportionate percentage of the=20
>>>> organization=92s budget. That is not the case with the WIPO. =
Despite=20
>>>> the fact that as, a hightechnology leader, the United States=20
>>>> benefits directly and substantially from strong intellectual=20
>>>> property protection, it pays less than 1 percent of the WIPO=20
>>>> operating budget."
>>> Simply because there are 175 member nations, who, en masse, pay only=20=

>>> 7%,
>>> so it would be literally impossible for one member nation to pay 1=20=

>>> percent.
>>> So what is the point of the above tirade, other than being=20
>>> misleading?
>>
>> The point is : governments have encouraged WIPO to live on its own=20
>> funds.
>
> FALSE:
>
> You sound as if you would like to confuse the issue into a sort of
> "which came first, the chicken or the egg" question. . . .
>
> However. . .it is obvious to anyone who takes a look at the origins of
> our copyright system that the entire thing originated NOT with gov'ts
> encouraging businesses to create copyright laws, but with. . .
>
> BUSINESSES ENCOURAGING GOVERNMENTS TO CREATE COPYRIGHT LAWS.

So once again, we need to stress the fact that copyright laws don't=20
protect the authors, nor the public, nor the creations... they protect=20=

businesses. We need to propagate "desenchantement" about this because=20
everybody take for granted that copyright laws protect artists...

So :

current application of copyright laws tend to protect businesses=20
against authors whenitshould aim at protecting creations and developing=20=

the spread of culture throughout the public

Am I right ?





Jean-Baptiste Soufron, Doctorant
CERSA - CNRS, Paris 2
http://soufron.free.fr=