We have it in our grasp to realize the original mission of the Library of Alexandria, "collecting all the world's knowledge", but with significant improvements on the original plan:
- Multiple, redundant, perfect copies.
- Copies in multiple physical locations, (to avoid the problem of, say, one central location being burned down and losing the whole collection).
- Storage of not only texts, but images, audio recordings (music, spoken word, etc.), and video.
- The ability to search all of this knowledge comprehensively yet instantly that the librarians of Alexandria could not even have imagined (but would have loved!)
- The ability to interconnect between all these texts and other media so that connections between them can be made explicit and easily navigable.
- Access to all this from almost anywhere in the world, rather than scholars having to travel to a single location in Egypt.
- Participation by all scholars (or anyone with something to share) from all over the world, rather than a relatively small group of scholars funded by a single government.
- And all of this based on a voluntary process of sharing. No breaking in and stealing originals from anyone. If anyone wants to keep something to themselves they simply refrain from sharing it and this great project will leave them in peace.
To help us, let's enlist a librarian from the Library of Alexandria by transporting him to our time. Let's bring Zenodotus, the first superintendent of the Library, pioneer of the alphabetical storage of texts and metadata to mark texts for easy retrieval.
Once getting over all the other various shocks of coming to our time, he would be curious how we now deal with his own passion: scholarship and the preservation of the great texts.
We would show him how, rather than spending months making a copy of a text by hand, we are able to make a copy of a text instantly by copying from one computer to another. Furthermore, the source and destination for this copying need not be anywhere near each other but can be on opposite sides of the world!
We would then show him how all this information, stored all over the world, is instantly searchable. Perhaps we would do a "vanity search" for him and show him the thousands of results containing the word "Zenodotus" in texts on computers all over the world.
We could then show him how articles on him contain references to other texts with information on the history of the Library of Alexandria and the librarians who came after him. How each text links to another in a vast interconnected web of knowledge.
But, inevitably, in showing him information on the Library of Alexandria he would see that eventually the Library was burned. Though some of the work of the Library was preserved, much was lost. In the long term, the project was a failure.
And after showing Zenodotus the astounding opportunity to resurrect his project and improve on it greatly, how would we explain to him that making copies of information is increasingly under threat? That people who make copies of information have been sued and jailed? That unauthorized copies are hunted down and destroyed constantly?
How do we explain to him that we were this close to realizing the dream of the Library of Alexandria but decided to burn it down instead?
Copyright has a problem. And patents are even worse.
They try to turn knowledge, or know-how, or "original art," into somebody's property.
I have read several ideas for protecting our creative people without turning their creations into private property.
Henry George:
"Discovery can give no right of ownership. Whatever is discovered must have already been there to be discovered. If someone makes a wheelbarrow, a book or a picture, the inventor has a moral right to that particular product, but no right to prevent others from making similar things. Though such a prohibition is intended to stimulate discovery and invention, in the long run it actually discourages them."
(Progress and Poverty - Drake PDF edition - pp. 228-229 )
Edward Bellamy:
"In art, for example, as in literature, the people are the sole judges. They vote upon the acceptance of statues and paintings for the public buildings, and their favorable verdict carries with it the artist's remission from other tasks to devote himself to his vocation. On copies of his work disposed of, he also derives the same advantage as the author on sales of his books. In all these lines of original genius the plan pursued is the same; to offer a free field to aspirants, and as soon as exceptional talent is recognized to release it from all trammels and let it have free course. The remission of other service in these cases is not intended as a gift or reward, but as the means of obtaining more and higher service. Of course there are various literary, art, and scientific institutes to which membership comes to the famous and is greatly prized. The highest of all honors in the nation, higher than the presidency, which calls merely for good sense and devotion to duty, is the red ribbon awarded by the vote of the people to the great authors, artists, engineers, physicians, and inventors of the generation. Not over a certain number wear it at any one time, though every bright young fellow in the country loses innumerable nights' sleep dreaming of it."
(Progress and Poverty - Project Gutenberg edition - Chap. 15)
L. Ron Hubbard:
"One of the greatest single moves which could be made to advance and vitalize a culture such as America would be to free, completely, the artist from all taxes and similar oppressions."
(Science of Survival p.481)
People who create knowledge (artists, inventors) or record that created by others (journalists, researchers, historians) need support in a society if that society wants their work to be readily available to future generations. Copyright is not the only way to do it. If we wish for creative works to be copied freely, we must also ensure the creators of those works are getting along okay.