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1. Metafrastis (dgavin@mastodon.online)'s status on Sunday, 19-Nov-2023 18:54:31 JST Metafrastis

   • Aral Balkan
   • Wolven

   @Wolven @aral Seriously, let’s just abolish copyright laws. They are the source for the most blatant abusive lawsuits. Since the Queen Anne edict the whole field of intellectual property has just been an impediment to human progress, scientifically and culturally. Everything is a remix, AI too.

   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Sunday, 19-Nov-2023 18:54:30 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Wolven

     @dgavin @Wolven Getting rid of copyright would also mean getting rid of the only means we have right now to ensure that certain things that are part of the commons remain part of the commons. Without copyright, the AGPL licenses on my code would be invalid which would mean any corporation could enclose them. Similarly for any work licensed under CC ShareAlike licenses, etc.

   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Sunday, 19-Nov-2023 19:05:28 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Wolven

     @dgavin @Wolven Getting rid of copyright wouldn’t mean that anyone is forced to release anything publicly. OpenAI and other corporations can and will keep all their code private and safe and you would have to physically break into their data centres to steal it (still a crime). Whereas anything anyone does share openly will be open to exploitation by the very same corporations without any legal recourse on your part to prevent it.

   • Metafrastis (dgavin@mastodon.online)'s status on Sunday, 19-Nov-2023 19:05:29 JST Metafrastis

     in reply to

     • Aral Balkan
     • Wolven

     @aral @Wolven Getting rid of copyright would mean: everything is in the public domain. If Ilya Suskever writes code for ChatGPT, he can do this because he went to schools, lives from infrastructure we all pay for, enjoys personal security we all pay for. He gets payed by his company, his company exists because the state offers the necessary economic security… no reason for a few to reap the fruits of the labor of many. All knowledge should be public because we all made it possible.

   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Sunday, 19-Nov-2023 19:07:10 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Wolven

     @dgavin @Wolven So, no, it wouldn’t be a level playing field. It’s not a level playing field today not because of copyright but because of the ridiculous power differential between individual human beings and trillion-dollar coronations. If we want to level the playing field, we can legislate to lessen or remove that power differential. (I won’t hold my breath.)

   • Metafrastis (dgavin@mastodon.online)'s status on Sunday, 19-Nov-2023 19:38:05 JST Metafrastis

     in reply to

     • Aral Balkan
     • Wolven

     @aral @Wolven Exactly what I propose. All knowledge must be public by law. Any great work of art must be in a publicly accessible museum.

   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Sunday, 19-Nov-2023 19:38:05 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Wolven

     @dgavin @Wolven So you’re not just proposing that we abolish copyright but we enact legislation that forces all information to be public under penalty of law? So all health information, bank accounts, all corporate documents, every police record and military document… Well, that would definitely be interesting. Although I do wonder who would enforce that for the police and the military…

   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Sunday, 19-Nov-2023 19:40:46 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Wolven

     @dgavin @Wolven … and what other countries would do with that information if not enacted globally and if enacted globally, who would enforce it and who would enforce it on those enforcing it.

     It feels to me like a more realistic solution would be to enforce radical transparency regulation on corporations and governments – alongside regulation to reduce their size and power – and protect the private rights of individuals.

   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Sunday, 19-Nov-2023 19:42:49 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Wolven

     @dgavin @Wolven Basically, my point is that copyright isn’t the problem, systemic inequality and racial power differentials between corporations/governments and individuals is. Abolishing the former without tackling the latter will not result in greater equality but a slightly different means for the latter to exploit the former.