RE: Design principles and ethics

[Jonathan S. Shapiro]

Bas wrote:

>It is myimpression that copyrights are very good for publishers, and
>that the artists themselves are having a hard time earning anything.  

This has not been my experience. Today copyright helps the artist.

Background:.I am a published book author, and I have managed finance and sound 
engineering for ypung bands that are just approaching the transition to making 
money at the regional level.

In the book case, copyright is the *only* reason authors make money. In fact, 
the big problem in this industry is a data management problem. The publisher's 
are acquired quickly and poorly automated. This creates confusion, with the 
result that they often do not KNOW who they are supposed to pay for older 
titles.

In the US, as in most of the world, you cannot sue to obtain payment unless you 
can show that financial harm has occurred. In this situation, copyright 
provides an essential lever Withbout copyright, you could only terminate the 
contract, and the publisher could keep publishing.

If the proosal is that the author should be paid at the beginning, we are (in a 
way) testing this in the US. Book distributors are tracking book sales closely. 
A *single* book with low initial sales causes them to stop buying from that 
author permanently - to the degree that authors here are now forced to sign new 
contracts using aliases. This was reported in New York Times earlier this year, 
with extensive discussion of consequences - all bad.

In music, it is already true that publishers have built a pyramid where much of 
the industry is funded *by the unpaid bands*. In this industry, copyright is 
the *only* lever protecting the band. We see already that publishers are not 
supporting continuing innovation in music. This is because the up-front cost is 
too big to justify the risk.

It is possible that the entire distribution system could be replaced. The 
evidence appears to suggest that the general poulation does not respect art 
enough to support it voluntarily. Some countries have national endowments 
funded by taxes. This should be cause for concern, because it centralizes 
control of production in an entity that can very quickly become subject to 
close control by the state. Consider that whenever there is revolution, almost 
the first act of the revolutionary is to seize newspaper, radio, and 
television. A healthy publication system that does not depend on the state is a 
necessary component of a free society.

shap