This page has been validated.
98
Culture vs. Copyright

people. The two differ only in regards to the resulting consequences. Additionally, regarding access to a desirable work of art, no substitution suffices. We already concluded that because of that feature, a printing monopoly on one book allows the rights holder to raise the price as if this book were the only one on the market. This is impossible within the Authoright environment, where a work of art is accessible for everyone to copy and use in any way possible from the very moment of its first publication—the ninth difference.

As seen previously, another quite unexpected development within the copyright model is the promotion of actual plagiarism cloaked in hypocrisy (the rationale is that it is feasible to promote and sell something similar to a best seller, providing carefully measured differences are incorporated). This would not work within the Selftuning and Authoright models because the public is acutely sensitive to plagiarism, and no publisher would risk his reputation while all original works are at his disposal. Again, while copyright promotes plagiarism and compromises creativity, Authoright promotes creativity and makes plagiarism impossible. It spurs a natural drive to create or acquire original works—the tenth difference.

Authoright eliminates the possibility of another negative consequence of copyrights: the publisher’s motivation to discourage the development of audiences—the eleventh difference. Insofar as publishers cannot secure a portfolio longer than necessary for the preparation of a work for publication, they have no interest in stagnating public taste. In this environment everybody seeks out new work, and it is profitable to have the public inclined to and capable of understanding anything new. It would be in the publishers’ best interest to encourage the public to learn new aesthetic principles, genres and so forth.

Now suppose the first work does not earn any money, which means the author has not become well-liked. The entire story starts over with the next work. A new start is likely to be easier in the Authoright environment, where the publishers and the public are in an ongoing hunt for new work and authors—the twelfth difference. After all, the only things which truly matter within Authoright are a work’s brilliance and the author’s talent.