In general, copyrighted works have a small audience due to our limited purchasing power, but their quality is high thanks to royalties. In comparison, free works have the largest audience, but do not guarantee the quality of the works or the income of their creators. Copyright law needs to be reformed so that we can enjoy more masterpieces and creators can earn more money.
I propose that people should have free access to all digital works. To reward creators, we can voluntarily pay for valuable content. In other words, people decide for themselves how valuable a digital work is, and how much to pay for it. For example, you may pay a lot for a book you found very useful, while I may refuse to pay for the same book because it didn’t help me.
This proposal helps people vote for good content with their wallets. As we spend our own money carefully, the total amount we voluntarily pay for a digital product can be used to determine its value and pay producers a value-based remuneration. In this way, only valuable works will get our voluntary payment, encouraging creators to produce masterpieces.
Copyright reform in favor of free access to valuable content will allow all masterworks to compete for our attention, enabling us to appreciate the best rather than the mediocre.
The copyright reform proposal will not only fairly reward intellectual property owners, as good creators become richer through voluntary payments, but also take human intelligence a big step forward, as people become smarter through an abundant supply of masterworks. This virtuous circle could lead us to intelligent evolution and pave the way to solving all existential threats to humanity.
