Honestly, anyone who studies a bit about the history and law-based enforcement of copyright will immediately conclude that copyright is just another form of rent extortion from the public domain and the commons...
You can commit the greatest atrocity against the democratization of access to culture and knowledge and justify it by claiming that you are only defending the interests of authors.
"Copyright owners have intimidated researchers away from disclosing that their software spies on users or is full of bugs that make it unsafe. When a blockbuster entertainment product inspires people to tell their own stories by depicting themselves in the same world or costumes, a letter from the studio’s lawyers will usually convince them to stay silent. And whose who sell software write their own law into End User License Agreements and can threaten any user who disobeys them with copyright damages.
These are only a few of the ways that copyright is a civil liberties nightmare in the modern age, and only a few of the abuses of copyright that we fight against in court
... show moreHonestly, anyone who studies a bit about the history and law-based enforcement of copyright will immediately conclude that copyright is just another form of rent extortion from the public domain and the commons...
You can commit the greatest atrocity against the democratization of access to culture and knowledge and justify it by claiming that you are only defending the interests of authors.
"Copyright owners have intimidated researchers away from disclosing that their software spies on users or is full of bugs that make it unsafe. When a blockbuster entertainment product inspires people to tell their own stories by depicting themselves in the same world or costumes, a letter from the studio’s lawyers will usually convince them to stay silent. And whose who sell software write their own law into End User License Agreements and can threaten any user who disobeys them with copyright damages.
These are only a few of the ways that copyright is a civil liberties nightmare in the modern age, and only a few of the abuses of copyright that we fight against in court. Copyright started out as a way for European rulers to ensure that publishers remained friendly to the government, and we still see this dynamic in the cozy relationship between Hollywood and the US military and police forces. But more and more it’s been a way for private entities that are already powerful to prevent both market competition and contrary ideas from challenging their dominance.
The imbalance of power between authors and the owners of mass media is the main reason that authors only get a small share of the value they create. Copyright is at its best when it protects a creator from being beaten to market by those who own mass media channels, giving them some leverage to negotiate."
eff.org/deeplinks/2025/01/copy…
#Copyright #DMCA #IP #RentExtortion #Monopolies #Censorship #CivilLiberties
If you’ve got lawyers and a copyright, the law gives you tremendous power to silence speech you don’t like. Copyright’s statutory damages can be as high as $150,000 per work infringed, even if no actual harm is done.
Electronic Frontier Foundation