So, if I go to the library and take a published book to the copier and copy every single page, take the copies home, bind them up with some pretty artwork and place them on my shelf I have taken nothing from the author or the publishers?
Sounds like you used all the library's paper and toner, but that's about it. I realize that whether or not you can actually get away with that is besides the point. I've made copies of pages for reference before, and when I was asked what I was doing, I told them that. "Oh, okay."
You might also complain about people who take the book home, and then make copies of it at home. Unless you would prefer officers of the law to follow people back and forth from the library and into their homes to make sure they don't do anything so devastating such as that, then I guess be comfortable with the fact that people are going to do what they're going to do.
Are you also saying that publishers have no form of copyright to the mass published version?
An author should have copyrights to his original versions. A publisher pays the author for access to those original versions. The publisher then does their thing to it. They obtained the original material legitimately, and now they've done the whole artwork and cover thing so as a whole it is a different work. They copyright it. All those books on the shelf are intended to be exact copies of the piece that the publisher copyrighted, and therefore they're eligible for that symbol inside the cover. When you buy the book you're buying the book, not the license to use it's copyrighted material as part of your own piece. At least that's how it would work in my little copyright world.
As for CDs, I don't know if the version on the CD is an exact copy of a version copyrighted by the producer. If it is, then you're not allowed to copy it as part of your own piece. If it isn't, then it's fair game.
The one thing a publisher or producer or artist can't do is claim copyright on something that sounds similar or looks similar or reads about the same as their original copyrighted work, unless this second version was intended by the publisher (or anybody else) to be an exact copy of the original.
Basically, a copyright holder has rights to any of
their material that is copyrighted, but not to anybody else's material even if only one word is different.
Same situation as above. I make a copy of a print, frame it, and hang it on my wall. I hurt no one?
Depending on what print it was, you may hurt the eyes of your guests. Plus there are a couple holes in your wall. But besides that, no.
You pay involuntary taxes that support the buying of the library's books and prints and whatnot. The taxed community effectively owns those materials. Don't like that idea? Don't pay involuntary taxes. And they can do as they please with them, just as if you'd bought the book at a store, at least until they try to make a copyright claim on something to which they hold no copyright. And then, unless the library (community) actually paid for a copyright license. At that point you can even change the book's title and republish it if you want.
Here is a more novel idea to consider: Instead of taking a copy of an official copy recognize the original artists work by legally obtaining an official copy.
In order for a publisher to copyright and make a profit off an author's material, they must pay the author for access to the original material, change it, copyright it (optional), and then sell it.
When you buy a form of art, be it music, film, painting, literature, etc. your dollars send two messages. 1) A message to the publisher as to what you believe the physical value to be. 2) A message to the artist that you find value in their creation.
When I pay the non-negotiable price of $15 for a CD, I'm sending a message as to what I
believe the physical value to be? Eh, no. If I could bargain a lower price with them I would be sending a message as to what I believe the value to be. But Best Buy doesn't like bargaining. I'll seek cheaper deals, of course, but if it's not cheap enough then I won't buy it. By obtaining the material for free, the message I'm sending is that their non-negotiable price is too expensive, but if the price was negotiable I might have haggled a lower price and actually bought it.
Now imagine if Led Zeppelin had released their debut album and digital copying was possible the way it is today. Instead of receiving 50,000 pre-orders, hitting Billboard's Top 10 after two weeks, and staying there for 73 weeks it would have only sold a few thousand, but everyone had a copy. No matter how many people thought they loved it the market communication process would have sent a direct message to Atlantic Records and Jimmy Page that this experiment was a failure. That would have been their only album, Puff Daddy couldn't have butchered Kashmir for the Godzilla soundtrack, I wouldn't have seen Page & Plant in concert, and I would be calling The Who the all-time best band I can think of.
I don't think this is a realistic example of what might have happened. Despite illegal downloading being commonplace today, professional recording artists still have enough money to lobby Congress to change copyright laws in a way that benefits them. Now, if lobbying were illegal...
Fortunately, despite how easy it is to not do it, enough people participate in market communication (aka consumerism) that these messages aren't destroyed completely, and the industry did change how they work. Early piracy presented a market message to the industry: Quit giving us one good song and 10 crap songs and making us buy them all. Thus legal MP3s were born. Legal MP3 purchases now make it possible to send messages about what kind of music the artist (studio planners) creates is worth our dollars.
I would pay $5 for an album. I might pay $10 for a good one. Occasionally I do pay that when they're on sale. But to buy an album for a dollar a song costs just as much as the whole album, which is what I want.
So, keep in mind that every time you pirate a song or movie that you allow the market forces that decide what to create to be driven by teenage girls that will pay for crap by Cookie Cutter Boy Band. Personally, that reasoning is the only way I am able to justify the existence of Nickelback.
Thank you, Keef. The Nickelbacks of the world are all your fault.
That's pretty clever reasoning, actually. I like that. Luckily, me listening to anything made after the late 90s is exceedingly rare.
I know that, within the current system of copyright laws, obtaining something for free like so many people do is wrong. But without a decent system with which I can offer up what I think something should be worth, which is probably considerably less than what they're charging because money is tight, I choose to do it the cheap way.
I may be a bad libertarian, but at least I vote for the right people, eh? I could be like Omnis and think we should all follow anarcho-capitalism and hope and pray that all this theory of private police forces and court systems actually pans out.