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

[Peter Eckersley]

On Fri, Jul 29, 2005 at 05:54:31PM +0200, Jean-Baptiste Soufron wrote:
> >Well it's true, isn't it?  It /is/ a threat to new playwrights.   
> >Unless,
> >of course, they're talented or relevant enough.
> 
> I don't think it is true. The Public is not interested in new plays
> because they are bad. That simple.

The public is only indirectly involved in these issues -- there are
theatre companies which perform plays, and playwrights who write them;
the campaign you described seems to be about removing the incentives for
theatre companies to chose free PD plays to perform.  It's narrowly true
that if some theatre company was otherwise indifferent between performing
another Moliere and a contemporary play, then the author could be better
off (being richer and having their work performed) under a regime of
perpetual copyright.

The fact that lobbyists characterised that as a "threat" to playwrights
is absurd; I went along with the absurdity in my response.  I had
intended to be a little humorous -- my apologies for not adding a
clarificatory smiley :).

-- 
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