PD is a threat to young creators creativity (was: Re: [Upd-discuss] !@!Public Domain & Eminent Domain)

[Peter Eckersley]

On Thu, Jul 28, 2005 at 03:40:20PM +0200, Jean-Baptiste Soufron wrote:
> I would like to add something about a new attack on PD. It is just  
> beginning to rise here in France and I don't know much what it's  
> about in other countries.
> 
> This came from theater plays writers who begun to explain that PD  
> plays are a threat to their industry since the public these plays can  
> be performed freely when theaters must pay new creators for their work.

Well it's true, isn't it?  It /is/ a threat to new playwrights.  Unless,
of course, they're talented or relevant enough. 

The public domain is good for contemporary playwrights.  It gives them the
competition that might raise their art from great to brilliant.

> 
> They tend to present the amount of PD as a threat to their creativity  
> (and of course they ask for taxes on PD plays).
> 

Which is equivalent to arguing for a subsidy on the performance of non-PD
plays.  If the French government really wants to encourage contemporary
creativity, they would do better by focusing in on just recent plays, not
everything out to life plus seventy years.

-- 
Peter Eckersley
Department of Computer Science   &                  mailto:pde@cs.mu.oz.au 
IP Research Institute of Australia             http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~pde
The University of Melbourne