Article
Copyright and the Tragedy of the Commons
IDEA
(2014)
Abstract
Copyright and the Tragedy of the Common is the first of a series of articles in which I analyze a disturbing moral and philosophical trend that has arisen in contemporary copyright scholarship—the tendency to criticize and demoralize the individual author of creative works and glorify collectivist or “common” works of art, or those which are perceived to be created by groups of often unidentified and unrelated persons. This “groupthink” mentality, which has become a buzz word in copyright scholarship and is aided by the unrestrained digital proliferation of intellectual products, is a dangerous return to pre-industrialist principles of collectivism which threaten to harm the continued creation of works of individual genius.
In sharp contrast with the majority of legal scholarship on the subject matter, this article explores the continued viability of the individual creator and asserts that the concept of author as contemplated by all iterations of the Copyright Act remains a viable and workable doctrine which should not be eviscerated. In this article, which critically examines copyright theory in a unique historical, literary, and philosophical context and contributes to the often contentious contemporary debate on the nature of creativity, I will show that viewing the process of copyright authorship and ownership of its resultant works with a collectivist or collaborative lens—or with what Søren Kierkegaard labels a “crowd mentality”—instead of continuing to reward individual authors for their creative works will invariably lead to the demoralization of the spirit of man and a culture in which common and regurgitated works will be produced rather than works of genius and individual originality, thus resulting in a decline of progress in contravention with Article I of the U.S. Constitution.
This Article carefully and critically approaches the authorship debate from a rational perspective that is often overlooked by academicians and other experts who examine the important issue. It is intended to provide a well-researched and comprehensive history on the concept of copyright authorship from a historical and philosophical perspective and offer an alternative—if not, highly controversial—perspective on the important issue of individual creativity.
Keywords
- Copyright law,
- Law and Philosophy
Disciplines
Publication Date
2014
Citation Information
Tracy Reilly. "Copyright and the Tragedy of the Commons" IDEA (2014) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/tracy_reilly/11/