Murdoc's Journal: Copyright vs. Freedom

This is in reference to this thread.

In particular these comments.

Basically they are saying that you can't have the freedom of abolishing copyright law without abolishing the GPL, which protects "freedom" in terms of software use. How to solve this? Well, in our society, like all such scarcity-based systems, we are forced to compromise, pick something in the middle that most of us can live with, and then bicker about it endlessly.

Isn't it interesting that in a Technocracy, all these issues would be moot, like a lot of the "you can only pick one (if out of two)" or "you can only pick two (if out of three choices)" we encounter. There would be no need for any form of copyright beyond proper attribution to the author or inventor(s). There would be no problem with artists starving or whatever since everyone would be receiving the highest standard of living possible anyway. People could then use whatever media they liked whether for entertainment, education, or to make their own whenever they want, and everyone's happy. As I always say, with Technocracy you can have your cake and eat it too.

Another line that stuck out for me was this (from the last message I posted a link to): ""Copyright is evil" equals "I don't think I should pay for anything", and it always has." Well I guess with Technocracy people can have both, and if this is an accurate reflection of Slashdot readers, then I'll bet they'd love Technocracy! Once they understood it anyway.

If you are wondering what Technocracy is, and how it can do these things without the myriad problems that I'm sure come to mind, be sure to investigate it thoroughly, because anything less will not answer all your questions and fill in the "holes" in your knowledge that may look at first like problems with the idea. Here is a good place to start. Especially try the Beginner's Page!