Yeah, I agree. I think most absolutist rejections of copyright and intellectual property are, at their core, a reaction against attempts to prevent piracy the person wants to engage in. Maybe mixed in with some misplaced Free Software idealism (that ignores stuff like the fact that copyright is the literal foundation of Free Software).
This is why the music industry gave up and now we have services like Tidal, Spotify and Youtube.
I think you and I may have different standards and taste. I don't disagree that there's plenty of good stuff being made, but a lot of it is hard to find and sorting through all the chaff is a gigantic pain.
This just points to the broader issue I was getting at in my previous comment. Record labels have never been great for artists, but they've pretty much abdicated any value they brought as a sort of filter awhile ago and have handed that off to algorithms that are questionable at best.
Quality also isn't always rewarded "fairly" or given a fair chance to catch on with a different market than whatever insular scene it exists within- this is compounded further via the insular nature of online groups too. Music labels and streaming platforms offer basically no support to musicians and groups who need it the most and who could benefit from a more hands on approach, and instead defer all their resources onto a few golden geese, because its safe and pays the bills.
This is short sighted though and creates an atmosphere of stagnation- a similar process is happening in film as well, culture is just being mediated by algorithms and markets, which is why culture has become so stagnant, predictable, boring, and circular.
What they want is for you to be very happy about you getting ripped off by them whilst they infringe and grift on your work for free with zero credit.
It’s honestly somewhat schizophrenic on HN sometimes. You’ll read comments on one article and everybody goes full-bore Bay Area tech bro libertarian - no regulation, ever!!! And then in literally the next comment thread everybody is up in arms because why isn’t there government protection around this vitally important issue?!? Come on Uncle Sam!
I’m old enough to know that I’m dealing with people and so there’s no reason to expect anyone to make sense or be consistent. But I’ll be darned if I don’t feel the cognitive dissonance from time to time.
Shakespeare. Leonardo. Michelangelo. Aristotle.
All of them produced their timeless works without copyright.
Copyright was a workable hack as long as making copies required buying a printing press (or equivalent), but those days are over and they aren't ever coming back.
Rather than continuing to bail out the sinking ship of copyright, artists need to start thinking about (and working on) new ways to get paid.
Why is it on the exploited to figure it out?
“Sorry bud, I know I keep holding you up for money. You really ought to figure out a way not to get robbed.”
Do you?
Besides, that's not the point. Your previous way of making money is untenable, and has been since the invention of the Xerox machine.
What are you doing about it?
The manual drafters either learned CAD or got out of the trade.
The blacksmiths either learned how to be machinists or got out of the trade.
The farmers either learned how to use tractors or got out of the trade.
Your current business model is utterly dependent on the assumption that making copies is difficult and/or expensive. That's not true, and hasn't been true for quite some time. You can either deal with that fact or find yourself in the position of whalers after Rockefeller started cranking out fuel for kerosene lamps by the trainload.
> Why is it on the exploited to figure it out?
No one is being "exploited". No one is standing over you with a whip and forcing you to work.
Other people get paid for doing a job at the end of a week or month, and that's it. They don't continue to get paid for 90 years for one piece of work. I mean, yeah, that's a sweet deal, but sweet deals rarely last forever.
The stated reason for copyright (at least in the US) is to improve society by "promot[ing] the Progress of Science and useful Arts", not to enrich the authors per se.
> “Sorry bud, I know I keep holding you up for money. You really ought to figure out a way not to get robbed.”
Casual copyright violation is not, and never has been, prosecuted as theft or "robbery". The very concept didn't even exist until recent times, while real theft and robbery go all the way back to the beginning of history, likely long before.
I'd still recommend that you work on alternative methods of getting paid.
Sorry friend but this is a really bad take. I sink my time and energy into creating something and then when I get ripped off I should be happy because of the exposure?
https://theoatmeal.com/comics/exposure