Near Future Copyrighting

Cory Doctorow writes funny, forward thinking stories that happen in the near future. Bruce Sterling says:

I know many science fiction writers engaged in the cyberworld, but Cory Doctorow is a native…

Max Barry writes funny, forward thinking stories that happen in the near future. Well, at least his last one, Jennifer Government, was.

Doctorow is a well known speaker and activist for the EFF and promotes better creative rights by fighting copyright misuse and for new systems like Creative Commons oriented towards protecting creators, not corporations who abuse purchased rights. Barry just came out with his views on copyright and they fit in very well with Doctorow’s.

We invented copyright to encourage innovation: to make it worthwhile for people to create their own artistic works, rather than copy and sell someone else’s. The aim is not to bequeath eternal rights to an idea, or to make artists fabulously wealthy; it’s to provide society with new books, films, songs, and other art. Copyright provides incentive, but the incentive itself is not the point of the law: the point is to encourage creative behavior.

I find it interesting that two guys who “live” in the future and make a living at creating stuff share those views. They look at what’s coming, think about ways it could turn out, see copyright as needing to change and see a fairer way even when figuring in the fact they need some form of it to eat.