[WEB4LIB] Death of the Copyright Thread...

[James Cayz]

On Tue, 20 Mar 2001, John Small wrote:
>Can there be MORE points of view?

John, All;

I thought about this for a while (long while) before *not* seeing it, and
deciding that, maybe, it *is* worth mentioning.

Roy T. hit upon it in his slide show.  Why is copyright infringement such
an issue today than it has been, say, when the printing press was born?

Because, the cost of the original is so much higher than the cost of
"blanks" plus the effort to duplicate.  CHEAP versus NOT CHEAP is relative
to the cost of the original....

Take books.  Paper is not expensive, but copying a book, by hand, or by
modern photocopier, is non-trivial, especially if you wish to preserve the
original binding.  Also, copies of copies of copies deteriorate in
quality.  The original is the best, the copies, well, are copies.  The use
of color, as in illustrations or pictures, has also been a limiting
factor (costly color copiers aside).

Take Videos.  Originally, videos were $50 - $100 each.  Then, the price of
VCRs fell, and their quality improved, and a somewhat enterprising person
could link two together and make "decent" copies.  Enter "GoVideo" dual
decks.  The price of blank tapes (decent quality) is about $2.  The price
of a new pre-recorded video is now down to what, $10-$15?  So, the
original is roughly 5:1 to 7:1 the price of the blank, and it will take
90-120 min to make a copy, which also deteriorates as copies of copies are
made.  The technology has improved, but the price of the "original" has
dropped accordingly, to make copying "not worth it" for the common person.

Now, look at CDs.  I can't remember their original prices, but it wasn't
like $50 or $60 - maybe $25?  But, now we have the technology in place to
make a copy (still not perfect), in 15-20 minutes, for maybe $1.  The
price of the original are still $15(?), and still 15:1 or higher.  Drop
the price of prerecorded CDs to $5 - $7, and I think the "copyright"
problem would disappear.  Case in point - when was the last time you heard
anyone copying an AOL signup CD?  Why Bother?

So, those still standing, answer me this - who loses MOST by lowering the
cost of CDs 50%?  And why do you think *they* want to protect their profit
margins?

Just *my* thoughts.

James Cayz