Patents?

[Tom Sawyer]

How do you make money off your work if someone else can take it and sell for the cost of copying it. How many films would get made if others could sell it for 50 cents a copy? They didn't bear the production costs or create the art.

[Russell Kanning]

The movie and music industries are fighting the pirating hard and are using the government to punish people .... yet pirating still happens and people still pay movie and music companies for content. Many people like to acknowledge the artist or creator of something. People like to buy from the original ... such as Kellogg signing his boxes. He couldn't stop people from copying his cereal ... but he still made money.

[Tom Sawyer]

The current way copyright is handled is a mess.

The movie and music industry should be embracing the new methods of distribution... can't stop progress and efficiency. The artists can become the distributors, cut out the parasitic fat cats in the middle.

Some form of private market based method would be preferable to me. Contractual or some such.

[Braddogg]

The way to do this is to transform the current intellectual property stuff from government oversight into private oversight.  For example, movies.  Government needn't be the ones protecting against piracy.  The private businesses have a vested interest in preventing it.  Movie theaters will continue to ban video cameras in their theaters because to do otherwise would be to jeopardize their market (if people can watch bootleg movies at home, they're less likely to watch them in the theaters).  DVD distributors likewise have a similar vested interest.  Anti-piracy technology and contract, not government action, is the appropriate way to handle these things.

IP is an example of businesses trying to hand off the costs of business onto government -- and onto the taxpayers.

[Russell Kanning]

Anti-piracy technology and contract, not government action, is the appropriate way to handle these things.

Sounds good. What happens if one person doesn't hold up their end of the contract?

[error]

What happens if someone who is not a party to the contract violates the contract?

[eques]

You have a Constitutional Convention to sort things out.

[Braddogg]

Anti-piracy technology and contract, not government action, is the appropriate way to handle these things.

Sounds good. What happens if one person doesn't hold up their end of the contract?

There'd be provisions, I'm sure, for what happens to those who violate the contract, like there are for any contract.  Tort law remedies with financial penalty enforced by the state for the minarchist society, reputation rating damage for the anarcho-capitalist society (which would make it harder for someone to enter into another similar contract).

[Braddogg]

What happens if someone who is not a party to the contract violates the contract?

Could you provide a few more details?

[error]

What happens if someone who is not a party to the contract violates the contract?

Could you provide a few more details?

I could provide an example. Alice records a song. She sells a copy of it to Bob. Bob listens to the song. Alice and Bob have a contract, however well or poorly defined.

Charlie downloads the song off the Internet, from Gawd knows whom.

[Braddogg]

What happens if someone who is not a party to the contract violates the contract?

Could you provide a few more details?

I could provide an example. Alice records a song. She sells a copy of it to Bob. Bob listens to the song. Alice and Bob have a contract, however well or poorly defined.

Charlie downloads the song off the Internet, from Gawd knows whom.

Thanks.  Obviously, someone uploaded the song for Charlie to be able to download it.  The person who uploaded it is the one who would be liable for violating the contract (if the contract forbade file sharing).  It then becomes a problem of technology, which is way out of my knowledge area -- how do you track who shared the file?  Probably through monitoring uploads.  Companies might hire people to search people who are sharing the files.  Some of those people uploading the file would be merely passing along the files gathered from others, but some would be violating their contract.  Just an idea.

[Kevin Bean]

What happens if someone who is not a party to the contract violates the contract?

Could you provide a few more details?

I could provide an example. Alice records a song. She sells a copy of it to Bob. Bob listens to the song. Alice and Bob have a contract, however well or poorly defined.

Charlie downloads the song off the Internet, from Gawd knows whom.

How has Charlie violated the contract if he is not a party to the contract? He did not interfere with Bob's purchase from Alice.