Copyright law is becoming increasingly outdated in the online sharing culture, and more and more authors can no longer make a living from their creative work. There are three major problems with copyright.
Firstly, those who need intellectual works the most are those who cannot afford to buy licensed copies. The young and the poor usually have no money, but young people are best placed to acquire knowledge from copyrighted works, while poor people desperately need knowledge to improve their situation.
Secondly, there are few buyers for most works because we rarely know whether a work is worth its price unless we study it first, but copyright law requires us to buy first. Furthermore, a uniform price for a work is unfair because the value of a work varies considerably from person to person.
Thirdly, it’s not in the public interest to hide valuable content behind copyright while allowing the Internet to be flooded with worthless information that wastes our time and resources.
I propose that people have free access to digital works and then pay freely for valuable work. Free payment means that everyone decides for themselves how much to pay for a work. This proposal not only allows everyone to study all excellent works first and pay for valuable content later, but also helps creators receive value-based remuneration.
If creators want more audience and more remuneration, I suggest introducing free payment for their digital works. It’s to be expected that few people will pay in the initial phase of introducing free payment. However, if we can freely enjoy all the best works in the world, our intellectual level and willingness to pay for masterpieces will steadily increase.
