Some interesting reading can be found over at Gamasutra (The Art and Science of Making Games), regarding copyright and it’s impending doom. I pretty much agree with everything he’s saying. It will be interesting to see what happens to copyright laws over the next few years.
good article: very intelligently written and thought-out. Yeah it sounds plausible. It puts the artists themselves on shaky ground, but it’s plausible. The shaky ground neccesitates outside support (i.e. from government and others) to keep some of the more struggling artists on their feet, which in turn neccesitates a greater respect for the art.
This whole situation sounds incredibly familiar: in Europe in the first half of the 18th century, virtually all fine art (i.e. music, drama, etc.) was done in some sort of patronage environment: either from the courts of the royalty and nobility, a university, or a church. At the same time, and this is especially clear in music, obvious and blatant borrowing of musical material was pretty much universal.
Nowadays, the vast majority of professional composers are attached to the universities, by teaching private lessons and other courses as part of the students’ (such as my) education. With the fall of copyright, we may see, as previously alluded to, a great return to the patronage system. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing I don’t know (it wasn’t too horrible in the 18th century…).
It’s very fascinating: the 20th century, with its lightning-fast urbanization and communication, and including incredible musical/art can clearly stand as a neo-Rennaissance. It then follows that the 21st century, with the fall of copyright, the expansion upon the 20th century’s developments in communication and urbanisation, the possible return to the patronage system, and artistic styles and schools becoming more and more standardized, might stand as a neo-Baroque.
It’ll be incredibly interesting to see how this post-modern era (1918-who knows) pans out, knowing what we know about the modern era (ca. 1400-1918)
Matthew