Fundamentally, the power a author has ,that is greater than the power granted by IP, is the power to decide whether to release something or not. This is a nontransferable power.
Historically, copyright was the granting of limited time monopoly powers over the distribution and derivatives of something in exchange for the promise of the author to not make use of the power to choose to not publish. In other words, copyright was meant to encourage publishing. The reason was that publishing that was controlled and approved by the state was vastly more preferable to uncontrolled organic spreading of knowledge. It was meant to be a win-win-win for everybody. The author gained revenue, the state gained control and the public gained culture.
The same was true about patents. The state granted the inventor a limited time monopoly over the use of a solution in exchange for the inventor not keeping it a secret. This granted the the inventor a way to extract revenue directly out of an idea instead of out of a finished sealed product. It granted the state control. And it granted the public access to the inner workings of the innovation.
This however does not mean that the power to keep something secret is gone. When it is more profitable to do so, the choice will always be to do so. That is why trade secrets exist. That is why there is a black market for information. Secrets are still highly valuable.
Currently the term of copyright extends far beyond the end of the life of the author. Noone will publish anything after they are dead. Also, all IP rights are now transferrable and inheritable. Oftentimes IP transfers are imposed on employees as part of their contract with the employer. The main beneficiary of IP today are large corporations. Also, the public is no longer just a consumer but a transformer. And due to technology, the state has clearly lost control. All of this makes the system of IP, not sustainable. The incentives are no longer aligned.
This model relies on that fundamental power to keep something secret and to trade that secret. It is an attempt to realign the incentives of each party based on simpler assumptions.
Now please explain why you believe "it's just asking to fall into a tragedy of the commons".
"IP transfers are imposed on employees" - so true. pretty much all the contracts I've seen in the past 8-10 years had something like this in it and I did refuse jobs because of these clauses.
These days - almost everything(related to development) I do is done by my wife, my sisters husband or a very good friend from another country :)
Historically, copyright was the granting of limited time monopoly powers over the distribution and derivatives of something in exchange for the promise of the author to not make use of the power to choose to not publish. In other words, copyright was meant to encourage publishing. The reason was that publishing that was controlled and approved by the state was vastly more preferable to uncontrolled organic spreading of knowledge. It was meant to be a win-win-win for everybody. The author gained revenue, the state gained control and the public gained culture.
The same was true about patents. The state granted the inventor a limited time monopoly over the use of a solution in exchange for the inventor not keeping it a secret. This granted the the inventor a way to extract revenue directly out of an idea instead of out of a finished sealed product. It granted the state control. And it granted the public access to the inner workings of the innovation.
This however does not mean that the power to keep something secret is gone. When it is more profitable to do so, the choice will always be to do so. That is why trade secrets exist. That is why there is a black market for information. Secrets are still highly valuable.
Currently the term of copyright extends far beyond the end of the life of the author. Noone will publish anything after they are dead. Also, all IP rights are now transferrable and inheritable. Oftentimes IP transfers are imposed on employees as part of their contract with the employer. The main beneficiary of IP today are large corporations. Also, the public is no longer just a consumer but a transformer. And due to technology, the state has clearly lost control. All of this makes the system of IP, not sustainable. The incentives are no longer aligned.
This model relies on that fundamental power to keep something secret and to trade that secret. It is an attempt to realign the incentives of each party based on simpler assumptions.
Now please explain why you believe "it's just asking to fall into a tragedy of the commons".