Marc Aronson on The End Of History (Books)

We treat copyrights as individual possessions, jewels that exist entirely by themselves. I’m obviously sympathetic to that point of view. But source material also takes on another life when it’s repurposed. It becomes part of the flow, the narration, the interweaving of text and art in books and e-books. It’s essential that we take this into account as we re-imagine permissions in a digital age.

When we have a new model for permissions, we will have new media. Then all of us — authors, readers, new-media innovators, rights holders — will really see the stories that words and images can tell.

via nytimes.com, Marc Aronson, The End Of History (Books) Aronson proposes a simpler model of managing the costs of copyright use, but never mentions creative commons, presumably because it is assumed that everything that can be copyrighted, will be, and those holding such rights will seek to maximize the amount of moeny they make from them. I want to live in a world where the goal is maximizing knowledge, happiness, and understanding. And this isn’t it.