Technology

Do it., but also ensure that all work enters the public domain and is free for anyone to use, modify, commercialize, or basically whatever the GPL says.

This is the only thing he's ever done or said that I agree with, even though his real intentions are obvious. We really do need a complete re-writing of IP law, but not from Elon.

Well a billionaire commanded we argue about copyright law. I guess we need to expend our energy and build enough momentum so that Musk can grab more power during the turmoil.

Trumpers did their part by arguing about free speech. Time to tap into our issues with IP laws and help Musk too!

IP law does 3 things that are incredibly important… but have been basically irrelevant between roughly 1995-2023.

1. Accurate attribution. Knowing who actually made a thing is super important for the continued development of ideas, as well as just granting some dignity to the inventor/author/creator.
2. Faithful reproduction. Historically, bootleg copies of things would often be abridged to save costs or modified to suit the politics of the bootlegger, but would still be sold under the original title. It’s important to know what the canonical original content is, if you’re going to judge it fairly and respond to it.
3. Preventing bootleggers from outcompeting original creators through scale.

Digital technology made these irrelevant for a while, because search engines could easily answer #1, digital copies are usually exact copies so #2 was not an issue, and digital distribution made #3 (scale) much more balanced.

But then came AI. And suddenly all 3 of these concerns are valid again. And we’ve got a population who just spent the past 30 years living in a world where IP law had zero upsides and massive downsides.

There’s no question that IP law is due for an overhaul. The question is: will we remember that it ever did anything useful, or will we exchange one regime of fatcats fucking over culture for another one?

Can't disagree here, this would be great

Talking about "IP" as if it were a single thing confuses any debate. Copyright is not a patent, which is not a trademark - they do different things.

Software patents actually should be deleted. It is impractical to avoid accidentally infringing as there are multiple ways to describe the same system using totally different technical descriptions. Copyright for software was enough.

Disney vs Musk when?

I'm fully in favour of abolishing IP law for everyone, ideally globally.

Public domain everything.

It's not a surprise that all these techbros who want to steal everything and feed it into their AI machines without paying a single fucking cent to the original creators all the sudden want to get rid of IP. They can lead by example by submitting their IP into the public domain.

Or maybe they're just massive frauds?

I think ip laws are important but need to be changed. One example are things that are funded by tax dollars. They can’t own the ip of something we funded even if partially funded. Maybe let them hold the ip until they recoup their cost.

I also think that it is OK for companies to have ip, but it needs to be shorter. Like, they get 10 years or they earn 10x their cost on developing it.

Im not saying my exact ideas are perfect, but just an example of how ip should not last for as long as it does.

Musk is out to delete all laws that don't benefit him, and replace them with harsh private rules that are not accountable to the people.

This isn’t as forward thinking as you’d want it to be.

For as much as they are abused, “IP laws” protect small and individual inventors, writers, composers, etc.

With no patent, copyright or trademark protections the billionaires will own or bury everything.

What is needed is to bring the laws back to their intended purpose.

The current US trade war is the perfect opportunity for some other country or countries to "right-size" their IP laws.

Hollywood wanted "lifetime plus 900 years" or whatever. So, whenever the US negotiated a trade deal it said "you only get tariff-free access to our markets if you give Hollywood lifetime plus 900 years in your country too."

With section 1201 of the DMCA this also meant that other countries had to accept that you could only repair your John Deere tractor if you paid Deere for the privilege. Or that HP could prevent you from using any ink but theirs in your printer, allowing them to make printer ink the most expensive liquid on the planet.

If the US is no longer abiding by the terms of their trade agreements, other countries should no longer honor these absurd IP treaties.

Now that it interferes with me I'm against it. As soon as it's absence causes me any grief I'll be for it again.

The libertarians want everything for free. Interesting.

I’m cool with it. I think we should require almost everything to be public domain. But I think those personally contributing to the public domain should be recognized, and no one should be allowed to get rich off of it.

Dorsey got fired from his own company by the board for incompetence.

Capital finally taking the market out behind the barn.

These people are threats to our actual lives.

Avoiding tax loopholes and fair taxation for billionnaires could also be considered. Just saying. Otherwise I think that the idea of deleting all IP laws is just wishful (and naive) thinking, assuming people would cooperate and build on each other’s inventions/creations.

Given the state the world is currently in, I don’t see that happening soon.