The Routledge Companion to Research in the Arts

no CoPyright and no CuLtura L Cong Lomerates

First, we have to do away with the protective shell for cultural monopolists, namely
copyright. This will lead to a new situation: markets will be opened in which many
cultural entrepreneurs can offer their creations and productions to audiences without
being removed from public attention. This new situation will, in turn, offer them much
better potential for increased profit on their work and thus the possibility of earning a
much better income than is the case in the present situation.
second, it is necessary to normalize the preconditions for the production,
distribution, promotion and reception of artistic creations and performances. There
should be no market party that renders the access to the cultural market, and thus
to audiences, impassable. This should also prevent the growth of dominant market
parties that could, after the abolition of copyright, appropriate the unprotected works
of artists, producers and commissioners, i.e. of an array of cultural entrepreneurs, thus
making loads of money.

Six major results

i count six major results that arise from my proposed interventions. First, the scale of
cultural enterprises will become substantially smaller. second, the public will no longer
be terrorized by marketing and can thus make their own choices more freely. Third,
many artists will have a much better chance of making a living from their endeavours.
Fourth, the public domain of creativity and knowledge will be restored. Fifth, and maybe
somewhat unexpectedly, normalizing the cultural markets will contribute to healthier
economic relations in our countries. and sixth, the change in cultural market relations
will have a positive effect for artists and cultural entrepreneurs in poor countries. Below,
i will briefly indicate what can be expected from the proposed changes. however, it will
be clear that much more research should be done by economists, by my fellow political
scientists, and also, perhaps more relevantly, by artists who try to imagine, based on
their practices, how their profession and their relation to audiences and the public
domain might develop if the proposed changes were implemented.
The first effect we might expect from the proposed radical restructuring of cultural
markets is that, with these new conditions, the rationale would be lost for cultural
conglomerates to make substantial investments in blockbusters, bestsellers and stars (it
is actually unlikely that these kinds of cultural giants will still exist after the introduction
of the market regulations i have proposed). after all, by making creative adaptation
respectable again, and by undoing the present system of copyright, the economic
incentives for production on the present scale will diminish. if we were to commit
ourselves to the abolition of copyright and the employment of a cultural competition
policy that is the true consequence of this, we would bring about an eruption of cultural
markets that would result in a diversity of cultural expression.
Corporation would never again reach such an extravagant size and dominance in
the market as they do today. of course, it would not be forbidden, for instance, for
a cultural entrepreneur to invest millions of dollars or euros in a film, game, Cd or
dVd. however, the investment would no longer be able to be made behind an endless
protective wall.
The effect would thus be that no single enterprise would be able to decisively
manipulate the cultural playing field. at the same time, through the abolition of