A Thought on Intellectual Property

[benlehman]

Inspired by some kefluffle.

On the internet, a lot of thought (including me) is put into the availability and rights to creative work: intellectual property.

Considerably less emphasis is put on producing creative work which is actually work someone's time: your own or others.

This seems backwards to me.

Comments

[tigerbunny-db.livejournal.com]

I don't think these questions are really pointing at any of the same things. Access to the raw material of creative work is the keystone of IP controversies (at least the part of it that's not merely about consumerism and entitlement); quality, craftsmanship, and professionalism is irrelevant.

I think your "authorial tradition" is only one - relatively modern and culture-bound - way of looking at creative work. Part of where the friction comes from is that the much older, much larger tradition of creative work is folk art - which definitely thrives on amateurism, mix-and-match, pastiche, outright theft, and a gift economy. All of these are anathema - as you say - to the authorial model. But the authorial model is foreign to the vast majority of human creative activity.

To the extent that's true, "authors" and "remixers" have little to say to one another.

The other thing is, the whole "long tail" concept is built around the idea that one man's trash is another man's treasure - that anything, no matter how obscure, crummy, poorly crafted, etc. probably has value to someone. Search costs become the limiting factor. Which is why healthy criticism and an RPG culture built around actual play is absolutely necessary if authors (rather than just tinkerers) are to survive.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Producing creative work actually worth someone's time (anyone's time, even yours) is not related to intellectual property, nor is it a particularly modern idea.

You're trying to paint me into a corner: "Because you disagree with me, you must be the opposite of what I agree with."

Stop.

yrs--
--Ben

[tigerbunny-db.livejournal.com]

I didn't think that was what I was doing... For one thing, I'm not really sure I *do* disagree with you. I agree with both propositions (as I see them: "access to other people's ideas is good for me making my own stuff" and "quality matters"). I don't think they're related. I don't think they're in opposition in any way. They're not talking about the same thing.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

They are totally orthogonal in all ways except time spent worrying about it.

yrs--
--Ben