Does a book really belong to us when we buy it, now that we have the Internet?
March, 30; 2025. By Arscodex
At this time, it's necessary to reflect a little on the concept of possession, and therefore of private property, in the age of the internet, and especially for intellectual products, whether books, films, music... We've gone from being large individual owners of books to humanity as a whole owning these products.
To this end, let's give several examples. Regarding books, we can see how, for example, a classic like Ovid's Metamorphoses now belongs to humanity since it flies and is available in a multitude of formats and mechanisms on the Internet, for free or not, depending on other factors such as whether it's a modern adaptation, etc. So to speak, this work belongs to humanity, as we've said, and each of us owns a piece of it. The copy we have is temporary, as long as it takes us to read it, and servile, as it has the aforementioned purpose of facilitating reading.
The same is true of many other books, such as Calila e Dimna or any other classic.
Regarding cinema, if we want to watch, for example, The Lord of the Rings films, or, for example, the Harry Potter films, since they are recent content, we simply have to go to the Warner Bros. HBO platform and pay a modest subscription fee to gain access to that coveted content. Do we, as mere mortals, now own anything of these cinematic works? Do we get something by accessing the platform through a subscription?
The same goes for Pedro Alonso Pablos' films, which are located or have their home, the vast majority of them, and almost exclusively, on the Pliski platform, which allows us to download a completely subservient copy that will allow us to watch the film. We may lose that copy -or not- depending on whether we are cinephiles and dedicate ourselves to storing films -or not-, and a number of other factors. For now, until the works enter the public domain, there is a holder and exploiter of said content whose home is on the internet: the aforementioned site Pliski.com.
But we shouldn't be fooled either, as this license granted by humanity to this content for exploitation by this entity is temporary. When the works enter the public domain, they will return to their primary holder: humanity. And, as has been discussed in this medium before, copyright is a temporary concession granted by humanity as long as the creator(s) of the work are alive, and a little longer. Every author must keep in mind that any creation they create belongs to humanity from the beginning, and merely temporarily, they may control the merchandise in order to profit from it. If that person is a skilled author, they can provide humanity with more relevant content, if it is relevant (otherwise, they will return to the bottom of the maelstrom of freely available ideas, the bottom of The lake of oblivion).
In music, almost the same thing happens; with modern music streaming subscriptions, we small consumers no longer own anything, simply limited and temporary access to the aforementioned musical works.
But we shouldn't be saddened by the knowledge that, as far as culture is concerned, ordinary people own nothing. And in true communist fashion, we should rejoice that all this content has a shared property: humanity. Each of us has a small piece of ownership in all those incredible works that are already in the public domain, and those yet to come.
To this end, let's give several examples. Regarding books, we can see how, for example, a classic like Ovid's Metamorphoses now belongs to humanity since it flies and is available in a multitude of formats and mechanisms on the Internet, for free or not, depending on other factors such as whether it's a modern adaptation, etc. So to speak, this work belongs to humanity, as we've said, and each of us owns a piece of it. The copy we have is temporary, as long as it takes us to read it, and servile, as it has the aforementioned purpose of facilitating reading.
The same is true of many other books, such as Calila e Dimna or any other classic.
Regarding cinema, if we want to watch, for example, The Lord of the Rings films, or, for example, the Harry Potter films, since they are recent content, we simply have to go to the Warner Bros. HBO platform and pay a modest subscription fee to gain access to that coveted content. Do we, as mere mortals, now own anything of these cinematic works? Do we get something by accessing the platform through a subscription?
The same goes for Pedro Alonso Pablos' films, which are located or have their home, the vast majority of them, and almost exclusively, on the Pliski platform, which allows us to download a completely subservient copy that will allow us to watch the film. We may lose that copy -or not- depending on whether we are cinephiles and dedicate ourselves to storing films -or not-, and a number of other factors. For now, until the works enter the public domain, there is a holder and exploiter of said content whose home is on the internet: the aforementioned site Pliski.com.
But we shouldn't be fooled either, as this license granted by humanity to this content for exploitation by this entity is temporary. When the works enter the public domain, they will return to their primary holder: humanity. And, as has been discussed in this medium before, copyright is a temporary concession granted by humanity as long as the creator(s) of the work are alive, and a little longer. Every author must keep in mind that any creation they create belongs to humanity from the beginning, and merely temporarily, they may control the merchandise in order to profit from it. If that person is a skilled author, they can provide humanity with more relevant content, if it is relevant (otherwise, they will return to the bottom of the maelstrom of freely available ideas, the bottom of The lake of oblivion).
In music, almost the same thing happens; with modern music streaming subscriptions, we small consumers no longer own anything, simply limited and temporary access to the aforementioned musical works.
But we shouldn't be saddened by the knowledge that, as far as culture is concerned, ordinary people own nothing. And in true communist fashion, we should rejoice that all this content has a shared property: humanity. Each of us has a small piece of ownership in all those incredible works that are already in the public domain, and those yet to come.
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