> It is putting an ownership
over an artifact
You can copy the idea though
And I say copy because before the author made it in the form of an artifact, you didn't know it could be done, or you could have done it on your own.
I can draw ocean waves, nobody owns ocean waves
But if I cooy verbatim hokusai ocean waves, it's mehhhhhhhh
I'm a ripoff loser and should be punished for doing it
Edit: but I like your closing sentence.
Free for all to use it as they see fit is an interesting thought, however I think that imbalance of the means of production will always make the corporations the ultimate beneficiaries, so we should also rethink how our economic system works.
For example: if I could copy the avengers, people would say "it's a cheap copy of Disney's original" and I would hardly make any money out of it.
It's an interesting POV nonetheless.
>But if I cooy verbatim hokusai ocean waves, it's mehhhhhhhh >I'm a ripoff loser and should be punished for doing it
You are totally free to copy that painting in whatever way you want. There is literally zero intellectual property attached to it. This isn't a hypothetical, it is the law right now. Nobody can stop you painting a replica and selling it, as long as you disclose that it is a replica. It is in the public domain and there will be no punishment.
Of course
But I've never said you can't, I've said it's lame and you should be punished for doing it, punished meaning people will totally not attach any meaningful value to it, because it's a stupid replica
Value in art is not given by the content (and usually not the idea), but by the author's intent
The fact that you can legally copy something that is in public domain doesn't take away authors' rights to decide what you can and cannot do with their creation
The problem here is that corporations want to copy creations of authors that are still alive and never granted them rights to replicate them ad libitum, for free.