this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2024
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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One of the clearest demonstrations of how copyright is actively harmful is the lawsuit that four of the biggest publishers brought against the Internet Archive. As a result of the judge’s decision in favour of the publishers – currently being appealed – more than 500,000 books have been taken out of lending by the Internet Archive, including more than 1,300 banned and “challenged” books. In an open letter to the publishers in the lawsuit, the Internet Archive lists three core reasons why removing half a million ebooks is “having a devastating impact in the US and around the world, with far-reaching implications”.

Cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17259314

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[–] [email protected] 104 points 4 months ago (5 children)

You should be legally required to offer content you have on a copyright or else allow people to "pirate" it. The same way you must defend trademarks. If you don't actually offer content you have the copyright for them you shouldn't be allowed to prevent people from distributing it as abandonware.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 months ago

I would add creation within an IP to this as well. There are so many good IP out there that some large company has devoured and actively chooses to just sit on when we could be getting good fan-made content. One example that comes to mind since it was brought up is EA sitting on American McGee's Alice. So many fans are desperate for good content from their favourite IPs and are getting corporate by-the-numbers drivel at best or simply nothing.

I think a good trade off here is fans can make what they want then the owners are allowed to incorporate fan stories at their choosing so X fan game would be the official third game in a franchise then the IP owner could run with those ideas to make the fourth entry, for example. It'll never happen but one can dream.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Canada either did, or still does, have a law like this. Years ago back when getting chipped cards for satellites was a pretty big thing, a lot of people near the US border could get ones from the US that weren't available in Canada and get the chipped card or whatever it was. At one point the company made a request to the Canadian authorities to crack down on it, and the response was something to the effect of 'your product isn't available here, you don't have standing to ask us to do that'.

It's easier to define it as this:

If you commercially release something and region restrict it, people in any region where you don't also provide a legal way to purchase/use it should be free to get it however they want.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I likebthat, but I think this misses the part where a company pulls it from all markets, which should be states specificly.

If you don't offer it anymore, you are not allowed to keep the copyright or patent.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Only if they ever offered it at all. Kind of 'once you put it out there, it's out there'

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (3 children)

What if you create something that you later really hate and don't want it to exist anymore?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 months ago

We can think of weird edge cases all day, the fact is companies shouldn't be able to hoard IP.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago

What if Tommy Wiseau became self-aware before the premiere of The Room? The world would be deprived of his glorious travesty of cinema forever.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Too fucking bad? The purpose of IP was to give the public access to novel ideas and art, not to increase the control creators had over it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Seems weird for it to be called "intellectual property" if its purpose is not to be owned

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

Not 'to grant them greater control' or even ownership. To secure exclusive right for a limited time. And this only because it was meant to promote science and art.

Using copyright to prevent a work from spreading is a direct perversion of the intent, it is using it in a manner diametrically opposed to what it is supposed to do.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

By having a Right to do something, a person also has the implicit Right to abstain from doing something.

Having the Right to Free Speech doesn't mean that a person is obligated to make publicly available every thought and opinion that they have.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Then they have the right to not continue publishing their stuff. That doesn't affect the rights of the persons who already got their copy alongside the associated rights to consume it. Depending on the licensing terms, it might not even affect their granted right to redistribute, if any.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Then they have the right to not continue publishing their stuff.

I was arguing against the comment that said:

You should be legally required to offer content you have on a copyright or else allow people to "pirate" it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

This would just incentivize malicious compliance. "here's a list of books we own. To purchase, send a letter to this address with a cheque and wait 30 to 60 days".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Or just have that book available in libraries.