My take is that copyright got lost when people started treating it as property. In that aspect I think GPL has a better philosophical standing as treating code as a commons to be protected from becoming property. Would not be sad to see it go out as collateral damage if it would mean abolishment of copyright and it’s philosophical failure though.

We should focus more on how to incorporate the commons in all we do. Economics, politics, justice.

This is what John Locke was talking about when he suggested that not everything can be private property.

Yochai Benklers the Wealth of Networks is a good overview of the concept of commons based peer-production, and the tragedy of the anti commons.

Any talk by Lawrence Lessing from way back when the topic was hot is fantastic takes remix culture

Personally I add to that the thinking of Henry George on how an just society should divide the land rent as public dividend. Also checkout geo-libertarianism and surrounding ideologies.

Perhaps taking it a step further:

Locke argues that land becomes property when you mix it with your labor. But only if there is no contention, the land is after all for all to share.

I’ll restate that as this:

The commons is primary. We all have an equal claim to it all.

To take something from the commons and make it private requires a fair trade. It’s not enough to put a stake in the ground and just claim it. Instead what is lost to the commons must be repaid.

Hence the question should never be, “how should x get paid?” but rather “what value can we derive from granting x exclusivity?”

Just consider for a moment the amount of resources are spent on enforcing the artificial scarcity supposedly motivating copyright.

The primary costs of policing it. Employing people to fight legal battles over it. Implementing automatic enforcements. The cost to those getting caught in violation. The cost of practioners in negotiating rights (what would it cost TPB to secure rights for everything it facilitate access too?)

Then there is the secondary costs. The opportunity costs of not having free access, the Napster that could have been. The things all those people impacted by the primary costs could have done instead, what value could they have provided?

My mind boggles when contemplating it, and I can’t for a second believe that if that is what it takes to get Game of Thrones produced, that I couldn’t live without it for a freer world.

> * People believe that you shouldn't be able to remix art to make money off it.

Say goodbye to a whole era of hiphop and electronic music.