

Curse of the Greedy Copyright Holders - rmathew
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704608104575220551906611796.html

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mikecane
Ken Bruen writes crime fiction. When I first discovered his work years ago,
each of his chapters would begin with a quote from someone else's novel
(attributed). I got introduced very quickly to a lot of other great writers.
Then the effing lawyers moved in. This wasn't Fair Use -- so pay us. As you
see in the WSJ article, the prices demanded have no relation to reality
whatsoever. Ever since that time, Bruen has used public domain quotes. I can't
think of a single _writer_ who would have objected to Bruen's use. Because
writers _love_ what he did. But when publishers, lawyers, and agents get
involved, the common well of culture is drained dry by their greed.

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kiba
Then there are the copy-free positions that some people espouses, but ignored
because people think such an idea is nuts.

A major libertarian think tank did think it's an alright idea, going as far as
giving away free PDF and put their entire content empire under the Creative
Common Attribution. Not exactly public domain, but they don't want people to
claims copyright over it and prevent the institution from being able to
publish it. I heard that they are even asking for bit torrent expert and
seeders. In the end, they still managed to sell a healthy amount of books.

The copyfree position is a revolution that is taking place within
libertarianism. IP was a controversy, but gradually, the anti-IP position has
won out. To that extent, business models are changed, too.

It could be a precursor of things to come in mainstream society.

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dantheman
Think tank link? I know that mises.org has been doing amazing stuff with
providing free content. They purchase the rights to a book so they can
distribute it for free, often causing the books sales to increase
significantly.

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DrJokepu
> When I asked to use a single line by songwriter Joe Henry, for example, his
> record label's parent company demanded $150 for every 7,500 copies of my
> book.

Not sure on what basis they are demanding that money as the record label does
not hold any copyright over the lyrics of a song. Song lyrics copyrights
belong to the songwriter and the publisher, if the song is published.

