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s_devtoday at 6:19 PM4 repliesview on HN

Let it collapse get rid of patents and copyright. They are holding us back.

People will assume that means that you can copy and distribute for free and profit without work. You already can.

The business model will have to shift to collecting money BEFORE making something rather than trying to collect it AFTER making. You want a new Christoper Nolan film on his new idea, invest in it. That investment is a risk. Once made the money is made people can copy and distribute however they like. In a cinema, on a DVD, on a streaming site etc.

You've pointed it out yourself, we have these old notions of economics that we apply to a new world where it simply doesn't make sense.


Replies

hatthewtoday at 7:08 PM

Investments need a return on investment. If "the thing you wanted to exist now does" is the only return, that's not enough to support anywhere near the current amount of digital product creation happening today.

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smcgtoday at 6:30 PM

If you want to get rid of patents and copyright then entire industries would have to roll over and die (the music industry, publishing, Disney, etc).

Also, people only invest in things if there is an expectation of profit. Your model for raising capital does not make sense.

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philipovtoday at 6:26 PM

And this is precisely the business model that platforms like Patreon and Kickstarter facilitate.

fzeroracertoday at 6:26 PM

In a world without patents and copyright, there's nothing stopping companies from just hiring the Pinkertons or something to threaten you into compliance. These sort of 'if we just get rid of patents things will be great' ideals will just benefit large corporations with the capital to get their way anyways.

This doesn't mean our current system of patents and copyrights doesn't favor them either especially as they shred it to train their AI models but it's not a system you can fix by simply tearing it all down.

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