tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5764290.post5735299672809664075..comments2024-03-18T07:00:59.438-04:00Comments on Rebecca Tushnet's 43(B)log: The Boundaries of IP at William & MaryUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5764290.post-53300732371479971272009-02-10T12:03:00.000-05:002009-02-10T12:03:00.000-05:00Well, it depends. Congratulations to your friend;...Well, it depends. Congratulations to your friend; that's wonderful. I note, though, that you haven't said she's been able to quit her day job yet. Most writers can't. They're playing the lottery (skill matters, but it's not the only thing that does). I agree that the prospect of a big payoff can motivate people to continue. But it's far from the only thing, and if we use only the language of economic incentives we'll ignore the actual conditions for the flourishing of creativity. I'm not anti-copyright. I'm anti- infinite extensions based on the claim that a unit more of rights translates to a unit more of rewards which itself provides a unit more of incentives.RThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00850241338827117087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5764290.post-31836216923274487852009-02-10T10:30:00.000-05:002009-02-10T10:30:00.000-05:00I enjoyed your paper, and agree that people who cr...I enjoyed your paper, and agree that people who create often do so because they need to, not because they get money for it. In terms of volume of content creation, the economic explanation does not seem to have much force.<BR/><BR/>But I don't think we can be binary about incentives. I don't think people need economic incentive to create, but they need economic incentive to dedicate themselves fully to creation, to make a life out of it, as opposed to just a hobby.<BR/><BR/>For instance, I have a friend who just got her first professional book contract. She wrote the book because her Muse demanded she do so. But her bank demands she pay her mortgage, so she has to have a day job, too. She'd love nothing more than to cast off her day job, which she hates, and become a full-time, professional writer, dedicating herself to her craft. For that, she needs economic incentive. <BR/><BR/>So what the economic argument explains on the content-creator side is not why people create, but explains why they make a living out of creation. To the extent we think "professionals" create better content than mere hobbyists (a perhaps debatable proposition, especially in fields like fiction, but less so in areas like movie production), the economic argument explains why and how people can afford to give up dreary day jobs in favor of creation.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13342745669273875373noreply@blogger.com