tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513524515428334509.post7731140818677982846..comments2024-03-26T10:41:35.852+00:00Comments on The 1709 Blog: Pros and cons: piracy and the Culture Flat RateMarie-Andree Weisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17125973798789498436noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513524515428334509.post-57479613001156283952011-02-23T13:31:15.667+00:002011-02-23T13:31:15.667+00:00@ John - I am not an expert on the Culture Flat Ra...@ John - I am not an expert on the Culture Flat Rate, so can't give authoritative answers to your questions. Moreover, this is at present an idea that has been widely discussed for many years but not yet implemented, so I expect there are a number of possible answers. However, some thoughts...<br /><br />Grassmuck says: 'it is possible to establish the number of exchanges and the works involved at least roughly as P2P market researchers like BigChampagne have shown'.<br /><br />I don't know the answer to your second or third questions (which does not mean to say that there isn't one!).<br /><br />I imagine the right holder could waive a payment.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513524515428334509.post-44560870908908139002011-02-22T22:59:47.989+00:002011-02-22T22:59:47.989+00:00Hugo, if you can truly individually determine &quo...Hugo, if you can truly individually determine "how often their work was downloaded." Then you have the basis for individual copyright. Or do you mean determined by "sampling'? <br /><br />How would it be paid to people, who live out side the EU and/or are unaware/unknown of it? Ie what would be done with the large amount of undeliverable payments, would they be returned to the people who paid the levey?<br /><br /> And in this system would the right-holder be able to waive payment?John R walkernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513524515428334509.post-68930270380222016942011-02-22T17:09:01.428+00:002011-02-22T17:09:01.428+00:00@ John - the Culture Flat Rate levy would be distr...@ John - the Culture Flat Rate levy would be distributed between creators in proportion to how often their work was downloaded.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513524515428334509.post-30734168344866764632011-02-22T04:33:01.609+00:002011-02-22T04:33:01.609+00:00Hugo, flattening is not an alternative answer to t...Hugo, flattening is not an alternative answer to the current problem, it is simply taking the current problem to the maximum size ( And honestly, do they really think that the whole globe will just snap to attention?). <br /><br />It is expressive of too much secondary level thought and not nearly enough imagination.<br /><br /> Flatland is not that far a step from 'pointland'. <br /><br />Steven Jay Gould once wrote a piece about his worries about the consequences of the then (1995)rapid flattening , narrowing and specialisation of education.<br /><br />In his concluding observation, he stated that:<br /> “I am worried that people with an inadequate knowledge of the history and literature of their culture will ultimately become entirely self-referential, like science fiction’s most telling symbol, the happy fool who lives in the one dimensional world of pointland, and thinks he knows everything because he forms his entire universe.”<br /><br />Gould's essay, 'Sweetness and light' is also one of the best essays on the theme of Swifts 'Battle of the Books' that I have read.John R walkernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513524515428334509.post-32480064922473648952011-02-21T22:27:39.676+00:002011-02-21T22:27:39.676+00:00Replacing copyright with transaction taxes has bi...Replacing copyright with transaction taxes has big costs for society.<br />Taxes redistribute; the more you earn, the more tax you pay( at least in theory). Copyright is the opposite; the more copies, you sell, the more you get .<br />Excellence in the arts is very rare - general average level activity is very much the median.<br /> A redistributive substitute (for copyright) must end in the triumph of general activity over excellence.<br /><br />These redistributive tax substitutes for the individual right of copyright, inevitably involve empowering some sort of ' Arts Academy of peers' as the determiner of who actually gets the money. All academies favor the median and meritorious , they all end in what Delacroix called the " conscientious service of the art of boredom".<br /><br /> The substitution of tax levies ,for copyright, is an anti innovation and anti excellence policy. It would have significant costs for the society that adopts such a policy- the best would leave, they would go to places where talent (and hard work) are rewarded appropriately.John R walkernoreply@blogger.com