What copyright law did to collective writing, by DUer Az

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

This deserves its own thread in a "mainstream" forum so it can be nominated. If you don't nominate, Baby Jesus will cry. Originally here.

People have no idea how the classics we now look to from ancient times came about. They think the authors simply pulled these stories out of their own mind and set them to scrolls.

Ancient writing is a marvelous example of collective writing. Stories and ideas are bandied around either in verbal or written form. The stories that capture peoples minds the most are the ones that were replicated. The masterworks that we enjoy today were the versions set down form this cascade of improving concepts.

The Greek/Roman gods came about in the same way. Through collective accumulation of stories the ideas that represented the most resonating aspects of our natures were the ones that got replicated. Early Christian stories arose in the same mechanism only they eventually came around to a dogmatic literalist position.

Today with copyright laws we no longer have such collaborative naratives and thus have nothing as powerful in our midst any longer. The Sciences maintain a collaborative approach but they do not appeal to the emotional centers of the mind. They are dry and clinical. Amazingly effective but beyond the emotional power of stories.

See the thing of the collaborative approach is that it can take the genius of countless individuals and pull from each of them the most relevant and powerful aspects. Later iterations build upon this and the final work is something beyond which any individual could accomplish on their own. And its all based on a form of evolution. Truly something powerful.