Friends are Electric

Argument on the Public: the public good moderated by individual rights is the fitness function for public policy. If and only if a set of choices have the same value of public good can other factors come into play.

Argument on Culture: culture belongs to the public and exists for the public. The public is served through the further development of culture. Public domain culture is publicly owned and controlled.

Culture and the Public taken together mean that public ownership of culture is in the public good. However, creation of culture is also in the public good.

So we have an equipotential. Total public ownership of culture is in the public good, but if creators are not compensated then less culture may be produced. Total private ownership may cause extra creation of culture, however this culture serves the public good less than publicly owned culture.

It is our government’s job to maximise public good. It falls to governments to create laws which balance the need for compensation with the public good of public domain culture.

Copyright is the current mechanism for this. Under current laws the public good is not served and creators are not protected, distributors are. Distributors do not create culture, nor do they look after the public good. Current law fail to maximise public good, which is the role of government.

Dead culture creators do not need to be encouraged to develop culture, they are incapable of doing so. Excessive protection periods do not promote public good either. Both of these harm the public by preventing material from entering the public domain.

Excessively short protection periods prevent a suitable livelihood from being derived from the creation of culture. No protection in the case of sudden death are dangerous as well as the creation of culture often comes with no pension. Dissuading the creation of culture is against the public good as culture is not created.

Reasonable protections for the creators of works maximise the public good by encouraging creation of works while moving works into the public domain within the lifetime of those who are alive for the creation.

Since culture is shared and dynamic, it is important to ensure that people living within a culture are not punished or dissuaded from the use of their culture. The use and transmission of culture is how it lives and develops. A culture which does not change and is not shared is dead.

Governments must be reminded that they are accountable to the public and that their purpose is to serve the public, not any group. Problems such as this, and many others, can be quickly worked out in principle and consultation with the public may begin to determine the form of the final solution. Such is the way of an effective, responsible government.