I was just thinking that it might be useful to add up how much money has been made by selling fonts since the dawn of time. I suspect that it's on the order of $1 billion. Adobe probably owns a big share of that, followed by various publishing houses, creative institutes, etc.
But that's about 10 cents per person. Why are we so concerned with protecting the profits of a vanishingly small segment of the population to the detriment of billions of other people?
I think that there are some weak points here that we could collectively attack and dismantle to reduce wealth inequality. One of the screws to turn might be copyright law, at least reducing the term from author's lifetime plus 70 years to something reasonable, perhaps 3-5 years with an option to renew for up to 10 years total. Another would be patent law, and certainly the elimination of all patents around software, genes, etc.
Short of that, we could form guilds where one of the conditions is that seeking IP retribution revokes one's membership. Then only do business with people and organizations in the guilds or face consequences, sort of like what happened with Drew Barrymore when she went around SAG/WGA.
But that's about 10 cents per person. Why are we so concerned with protecting the profits of a vanishingly small segment of the population to the detriment of billions of other people?
I think that there are some weak points here that we could collectively attack and dismantle to reduce wealth inequality. One of the screws to turn might be copyright law, at least reducing the term from author's lifetime plus 70 years to something reasonable, perhaps 3-5 years with an option to renew for up to 10 years total. Another would be patent law, and certainly the elimination of all patents around software, genes, etc.
Short of that, we could form guilds where one of the conditions is that seeking IP retribution revokes one's membership. Then only do business with people and organizations in the guilds or face consequences, sort of like what happened with Drew Barrymore when she went around SAG/WGA.