Tuesday, June 12, 2012

[icdwrzty] Software and journalism

Weakening copyright will result in serious problems in two fields, neither of which are entertainment: Software and journalism (or, more generally, non-fiction).

We will need to develop mechanisms, likely with public funding, which compensates creators for impact, importance, and usefulness to society.  Several explored in this blog.  Then, there will be the inevitable problem of gaming the system and non-optimal political motivations.

Assuming we re-legalize all noncommercial copying, we need to define the border between commercial and noncommercial.  Laws already exist (e.g., tax deductions on business expenses), but I'm not sure they are correct.  If you copy an alarm program onto your phone that rings to wake you up for work, is that truly noncommercial?

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