This iconic mouse is weeks away fromn being in the public domain Jan. 1, 2024, is the day when ‘Steamboat Willie’ enters the public domain
Linux, Firefox, LibreOffice, etc. are all labor intensive to make and trivial to copy.
People buy games on Steam they could easily pirate cause it’s more convenient.
And you could just turn AAA games into a subscription model or charge for accessing the server per hour.
Novels can be financed through donations to pay for the author’s time, or by a government grant.
Journalism lives from being the first to publish something, by the time it’s copied it’s already worthless, even in today’s model.
Science journals and text books should be financed by the state and made available for free.
My takeaway message here is: Removing copyright won’t remove the demand for media. If supply dries up because current distribution models aren’t profitable, the demand will drive other methods of monetization.
You should find it telling that you couldn’t name even one game.
Software that functions to meet a practical need is a tool, not media. People will fund ongoing work to develop and maintain tools that they use. People very rarely fund incomplete artworks.
We don’t have to speculate what models may exist, because they already do. Movies like Veronica Mars and the Babbadook (and Atlas Shrugged III) do get made through crowdfunding, but they still depend on marketing and distribution from companies that rely on a degree of exclusivity. So I guess there’s… Big Buck Bunny?
For games, there’s itch.io, patreon, etc. for gripping titles like Yandere Simulator and Liberal Crime Squad. But charging to access a server for a non-exclusive game? Better to just start my own server. Then I can charge for the game myself.
I already mentioned WattPad.
Copyright is still the best way for small creators to make a living. I personally would not want to live in a world where government grants would decide who gets paid for their art and who has to set up a donation system and hope for the best. Art would be worse, not better. Companies would still need artists to help sell their products, and there would be a fantastic supply of starving artists at the ready.
Commercials and billboards would become pretty banging, so I guess there’s that.
