“One can copyright any fixed expression whether or not the thing is easily copied, and a copyright is enforceable in a court of law.”
I was not speaking of what can be done currently, but what led to the ability to enforce any kind of intellectual property rights in the first place. When every book had to be tediously copied by hand, the concept of a “copyright” was ridiculous and unnecessary. Only when it became feasible for them to be reproduced cheaply and easily, did the idea of a copyright become feasible or necessary. The same concept holds true for every other type of intellectual property right.
“The industry will self police in the end.”
Of course, they will try, and they will probably meet with some degree of success, for a while. Still, it’s inevitable that the capacity for technology to reproduce nearly anything easily will make any kind of limitations on such use unfeasible and obsolete, eventually. It’s just a question of how long it takes the technology to get to a point where it makes such retrograde efforts completely futile.
Believe it or not, it’s quite easy to enforce copyright laws not despite technology, but because of it. I am an IP attorney, and know of hat I speak. There will always be thieves of music and novels and art. There always has been and always will be. The trick is to keep the theft at a minimum. Good laws and industry cooperation are the best way to do that.
Believe it or not, it’s quite easy to enforce copyright laws not despite technology, but because of it. I am an IP attorney, and know of hat I speak. There will always be thieves of music and novels and art. There always has been and always will be. The trick is to keep the theft at a minimum. Good laws and industry cooperation are the best way to do that.