In what can only be described as an epic PR fail for the copyright industry, they have threatened the parents of the most successful…
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History of Copyright, part 5: Moral Rights
In the late 1800s, the publishers’ ever-strengthening copyright monopoly had lopsided the creators’ chances of making any revenue off of their works. Basically, all…
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Future Market Value of Voice, Storage: Exactly €0
The ongoing debate on net neutrality among mobile phone carriers is amazing, and shows just how nonfunctioning that market is. I’m referring to whether…
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History of Copyright, part 4: The US and Libraries
When the United States was founded, the concept of monopolies on ideas was carried to the New World and debated intensely. Thomas Jefferson was…
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Copyright as a Fundamentalist Religion
An advantage of doing a lot of original research on copyright, and the history of copyright in particular, is that you start seeing very…
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History of Copyright, part 3: The Monopoly Dies – And Rises
After Bloody Mary had enacted the copyright censorship monopoly in 1557, neither the profitable industry guild nor the censoring Crown had any desire to…
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History of Copyright, part 2: Bloody Mary
On May 23, Mary was formally declared a bastard by the archbishop. Her mother, Catherine, who was a catholic and the Pope’s protegé, had…
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History of Copyright, part 1: Black Death
In this seven-part series, I will look at the history of copyright from 1350 until present day. The story of the history books differs…
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How shall the artists get paid?
One of the most common questions I get, and quite likely the most irrelevant, is “how shall the artists get paid?” in a scenario…
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Copyright is a Limitation of Property Rights
Copyright is not a property right. It is a limitation of property rights. Copyright is a government-sanctioned private monopoly that limits what people may…
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