03 November 2012

Day 129: Copy Right Scam Revisited

This blog is a continuation to:
Day 127: Copyright Scam

and related to:
Day 132: Does Copyright Make Sense? Or Just Cents?



So let’s have another look at the scenario of the man who bought textbooks overseas at a cheaper price than what they are sold and the US – and then sold these online in order to pay for his study tuition and living expenses – and then got sued for it.

One of the comments on Facebook on the previous blog had the following point in it:

Intellectual Property is a strange area - you need to protect the people who create it because they invest a huge amount of time and effort (and risk) into doing so - however obviously it can easily be exploited if not carefully monitored.

With regards to educational text books its an area which needs protection imho as they're incredibly arduous to undertake and require a lot of research etc. - yet they have a miniscule market in reality compare to a traditional novel etc.

What's being looked at here is the point that people require 'protection' --where in this case, the people making textbooks require 'protection' because their work requires a lot of time, work and investment -- and they need a point of 'safety' which is apparently why the books are being sold so expensively. Yet at the same time, the student also requires protection. In a lot of places in the world, study fees are very high and many need to resort to student loans which they may not even be able to pay off -- being shackled to debt for life.

This is because in our current economic system, we do not have a platform of support that supports and ensures even basic survival. The textbook producer is scared for his survival, and so is forced to move to expensive prices for their textbooks. The same way, the student is scared for his survival and is forced to find ways to make money to pay able to pay for his expenses -- which in this case he did with selling cheaper textbooks from overseas within the US.

Now, how would this scenario look like if a basic platform of support was in place, where each one receive an unconditional income? The survival point falls away: the textbook writer does not have to fear for his survival and ask a high price for his book, and the student can simply focus on studying without having to struggle his way into studying because of fear of not being able to afford to study.

This point is typical to the dynamic of supply and demand, where the supplier's point of Self-Interest lies within selling their products/services expensively -- where he wants to get the most amount of money out of it -- while on the demand side of things, the consumer wants to buy and goods/services as cheaply as possible -- like that he or she can get the most amount of goods/services for the money he/she has available. Within having a basic platform of support in place -- each one's personal point of Self-Interest is removed -- as they both are trying to 'get the most out of it' for the sake of their survival, where each one's Self-Interest lies at opposite poles. Once the point of self-interest is removed, one can instead of looking after one's own ass only -- look at what's in the Best interest of All Beings involved -- and come up with ways that works for both producer and consumer.

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