Anatoly Volynets

“ If a work of art, according to Brodsky, is a private enterprise, it is obviously of a different nature than a regular business. The artist’s “business” is to foster a sense of uniqueness in humans. When we regard art as art, we must take into account its nature. We must remember and take seriously the fact that art is not determined or driven by rewards or punishments, profits or losses. On the other hand, we know that business does develop around art. ”

“ Every author has the eternal and inalienable right of attribution. An author may sell his works, but not his “rights.” A publisher or any other entity may pay an author for the right to be named his sponsor. No company, organization, or group entity of any kind or nature other than the actual author of a creative work may be considered the author. The source of a work must be attributed in every public use of the work. Any sponsor of an author, a single work or a single publication deserves attribution. ”

“ Similar to Self-tuning, Authoright allows an author to sell his work, either literally fixed in some media or in the form of sponsorship, as many times as possible. With copyright, he is actually condemned to a one-time or otherwise limited sale. Any entity may sponsor an author in any environment but this cannot be really used with copyright for two reasons: first, the commercial and other public usage of a work of art is extremely limited; second, the rights holder is usually in full control of the work and may not be interested in promoting a sponsor. ”

“ Does second-hand publishing provide any incentive to the author? It can. For example, if a publisher wants to develop a brand, he may pay the author to be the author’s announced sponsor. Will just any publisher do this? Some will, for this marketing idea is not worse than any other.
If the author is well-accepted, his subsequent work will be sold at a higher price. Publishers will compete for the ability to get the next one first. Being the first means being a brand; publishers must be quite fast to grab any new work in Authoright-driven environment. ”

“ The only urgent need is to get something sufficiently different from a best seller and monopolize it. Plagiarism is encouraged and reveals itself in false diversity when the market is flooded by imitations that mimic greatly promoted works. We should emphasize that under copyright, only well-promoted works, not the best ones, are imitated. Under Authoright and Self-tuning, derivatives are allowed without restriction as a natural way for culture to develop. ”

“ A toxic copyright-driven environment pressures a creator to give in to the tastes of publishers. It compromises creativity in at least three ways, as seen above. Copyright promotes effective plagiarism. In this monopoly-based environment, any work of art may disappear unnoticed, regardless of how brilliant it is. High prices suppress the book and art markets’ normal development. ”

“ Hence, we have one more blow to creativity caused by the publishing monopoly a.k.a. copyright.
Yet another consequence of copyright is that, having a portfolio to profit from for years to come, publishers are compelled to prolong current public predilection for the arts. Publishers must therefore try to influence audiences in order to achieve this—the tenth difference. They need to discourage the promotion of new ideas, new aesthetic approaches to arts, new kinds of arts, new genres, and so forth. ”

“ Under Self-tuning, as with Authoright, an author is discouraged from committing plagiarism, while he is encouraged to do so under copyright. Where there is no publishing monopoly and all works are accessible to all publishers, publishers are naturally driven to go after the best and acquire them by all means necessary. Conversely, under copyright a publisher retains his portfolio for a prolonged amount of time. This portfolio is at the heart of the copyright business. Here, a big publisher may invest big money into the promotion of a work. Others are tempted to follow ”

“ We saw that the Self-tuning model provides a good framework for cultural and culture-related business development. Still, the author’s well-being is uncertain because publishers are not required to attribute. Thus, it seems to make sense for society to require attribution. What about other features of this model? Based on the ideas presented in previous chapters, I assume the following:
The natural law of culture that results in its normal development is ultimate freedom. No cultural phenomenon can be owned. Only a material thing with a cultural phenomenon inscribed within it can be owned. ”

“ Method of the Research It became clear in my previous deliberations and discussions with the students that the nature of creativity is the same in different areas of human activity. Based on that conclusion, I presume that neither genre nor kind of art nor historical time nor any other technicality plays a vital role in the reality I am now going to scrutinize. That is, analyzed scenarios, in their essential features, can equally apply to any creator at any time in any area of human activity. ”

“ What is important is that even if theft happened and even if it is not proven, the author may compete with the publisher-thief— the eighth difference from copyright.
We have previously discussed how, because of the very nature of art, the audience develops a personal relationship with a work of art. We know that such a relationship is similar to one with real people. ”

“ Being the most ancient as well as the most literal form of private enterprise, it fosters in a man, knowingly or unwittingly, a sense of his uniqueness, of individuality, of separateness—thus turning him from a social animal into an autonomous ‘I’” (Joseph Brodsky, Nobel Lecture, 1987) . ”

“ Authoright eliminates the possibility of another negative consequence of copyrights: the publisher’s motivation to discourage the development of audiences—the eleventh difference. Insofar as publishers cannot secure a portfolio longer than necessary for the preparation of a work for publication, they have no interest in stagnating public taste. In this environment everybody seeks out new work, and it is profitable to have the public inclined to and capable of understanding anything new. ”

“ No entity of any kind may control or regulate in any way the copying, sharing, distribution, performance or another public use of an idea, work of art or any other cultural phenomena. Most importantly, there must not be any restriction in the creation of derivatives or any other artistic use of a work. ”

“ Cultural phenomena are produced in an individual mind or in the free communication among individuals. Culture, when governed according to its nature, rewards authors, publishers, and society as a whole to a much greater degree than under current law. ”

“ Authoright, which governs cultural affairs according to the nature of culture, creates highly competitive, aggressively growing markets with the omnipotent and omnipresent drive towards novelty and provides competitive incentives for authors and publishers. ”

“ This would not work within the Selftuning and Authoright models because the public is acutely sensitive to plagiarism, and no publisher would risk his reputation while all original works are at his disposal. Again, while copyright promotes plagiarism and compromises creativity, Authoright promotes creativity and makes plagiarism impossible. It spurs a natural drive to create or acquire original works—the tenth difference. ”

“ Now suppose the first work does not earn any money, which means the author has not become well-liked. The entire story starts over with the next work. A new start is likely to be easier in the Authoright environment, where the publishers and the public are in an ongoing hunt for new work and authors—the twelfth difference. ”