- "enquanto os verdadeiros princípios não vigorarem por toda a parte, não será prudente que por amor deles exclusivamente o Brasil se constitua seu único paladino"
Volto a um assunto já tratado neste blog: a insensatez de a legislação brasileira impor aos inventores, no Brasil, padrões de proteção a biodiversidade que não são aplicáveis, nos demais países, aos inventores que lá buscam proteção.
Num texto de Edith Penrose que nunca é demais repetir (La Economía del Sistema Internacional de Patentes, Ed. Siglo Vinte e Uno, 1974), a economista americana nota que a Propriedade Intelectual, quando não é relativamente uniforme nos países pertinentes, opera em desfavor de quem mais concede proteção. Diz a tese de Penrose que quem mais protege, quando os demais países dentro de um mesmo contexto de comércio internacional não o fazem similarmente, impõe a sua economia o ônus do preço monopolista, ou da restrição de acesso às criações; enquanto os demais países competidores têm acesso a criação, em regime de liberdade de concorrência, podendo dela aproveitar para acesso de todos.
A conclusão é que ou a Propriedade Intelectual é internacional, ou ela é perversa; pois a evanescência dos bens intelectuais dá a todos o acesso, que o direito coíbe; e quando um sistema legal nacional coíbe o que outros liberam, os custos para a sociedade do estado protetor são sempre maiores, já pela comparação competitiva, já pela necessidade de retorno inteiramente local de um inventimento que será fruído em toda parte.
Não será muito diferente a posição de um pais que tutela sua biodiversidade, restringindo ou pondo ônus em suas patentes e sua inovação, quando outrs países não o fazem. Pois, para o depositante da patente, e para a sociedade que busca a inovação, haverá um preço a pagar, que as demais sociedades e depositantes estão isentos. Pela retidão moral de proteger a biodiversidade ou os conhecimentos tradicionais, a lei local oneraa sociedade que deveria tutelar, e a expõe a uma perversa vantagem competitiva das outras sociedadees e economias. A retidão promove retardo no acessso às criações e onera a economia local por algo que deveria - segundo a mesma retidão moral - ser suportada por toda humanidade que tira delas fruto.
Já algumas vezes a leitura da história brasileira da Propriedade Intelectual nos trouxe ensinamentos relevantíssimos. Em nosso O papel da ANVISA na concessão de patentes, encontrado em http://www.denisbarbosa.addr.com/arquivos/novidades/papelanvisa.pdf, contamos da interessantíssima discussão sobre patentes farmacêuticas travada no Legislativo do Império, em 1883, cuja profundidade e coerência muito aproveitaria o presente Congresso Nacional.
Aqui, também o exemplo do Império é interessantíssimo. Tratando do mesmo tema, a proteção aqui no Brasil mais intensa do que nos demais países, em honra à moral e à ética, mas contrariamente ao exemplo dos demais países, o nosso conselho de Estado vetou o excesso de cavalheirismo pátrio, em ataque aos interesses nacionais.
Leiamos o episódio, na versão de Gama Cerqueira:
"Este assunto foi objeto de minucioso estudo das Seções reunidas do Império e Justiça do Conselho de Estado, por ocasião da reforma da lei nº 2.682, de 23 de outubro de 1875, sobre marcas, a fim de pô-la de acordo com a Convenção de 1883.
As referidas Seções explicaram que a restrição constante do projeto fora determinada pela cláusula 10.ª dessa Convenção, observando, porém, que "os princípios de lealdade e honestidade comercial e industrial, que devem presidir a todas as transações, exigiriam proibição mais severa e absoluta, excluindo-se o complemento. Por outra, conviria antes proibir absolutamente qualquer indicação de falsa origem para marca da mercadoria ou do produto, como garantia mais eficaz em bem do público, muitas vezes iludido só por essa indicação".
Mas as Seções "ponderaram que, por muito respeitáveis que sejam os princípios, só um cavalheirismo pouco prático e alheio às idéias do século pode levar uma nação nova como a nossa a ir além do que observam as mais adiantadas e poderosas, privando-se de armas que de futuro poderão habilitá-las a retaliar, em defesa própria, contra a concorrência de que na atualidade são fatalmente vítimas". E depois de se referir à discussão do projeto das leis de Portugal e da França, sustentando o mesmo parecer, concluíram as Seções que "enquanto os verdadeiros princípios não vigorarem por toda a parte, não será prudente que por amor deles exclusivamente o Brasil se constitua seu único paladino" (apud AFONSO CELSO, ob. cit., págs. 308 a 311". Gama Cerqueira, Tratado, 3a.Edição, Luemn Juris, 2010, Vol. III, no. 375. nota 57.
Noam Gagliardi Rabinovich // Oct 26, 2009 at 8:46 pm
I have to agree. I’m just switched majors from Literature/Writing to physics/biology in part because I was questioning whether I wanted to be a “professional artist.”
I think the internet is giving rise to a new Renaissance, where artists are once again connected with the audience, and create for the love of art, or for ambition, as opposed to cranking out one mediocre novel after the next so the publisher gets off my ass.
If Chaucer had a day job, and the time to write one of the most ambitious pieces of poetry in the English language, if Cervantes had a day job, and the same for most of the greatest poets and writers… what’s our excuse?
And with sites like “bandcamp”, many artists are returning to the donation system (get it for free, pay as much as you like, if you like). And the file format is lossless so sound quality is no excuse either.
I am still on my journey to becoming a writer (haven’t dropped my creative writing program), but when the day comes that I feel I have something worth publishing… I still haven’t decided if I will go the publisher way. I’d most likely offer the ebook as “pay if you want, and send it to your friends”, and a self-published hard copy aside.
Self publishing will never bring the sales that a publisher can. But e-books are still a nascent resource, and many authors are getting positive results. Plus, one has 100% control over one’s product.
**
I think films is a different business. Movie piracy is wrong because a movie is much bigger than the artists involved. — I studied film for a while, and you learn quickly just how much goes behind a movie. — from catering, to the technical aspect — even a “small” movie involves a team of many professionals who all need to be payed fair salaries. Film is not a “cheap art” like music or literature; film is extremely expensive, and film piracy is stealing, in my eyes.
drew3000 // Oct 26, 2009 at 10:01 pm
I would have to agree with Noam, but even in that he’s changing his major after rethinking life as a “professional artist” is telling, and surely does speak to the idea of a new Renaissance, perhaps one in which people are famous not for days or minutes but by bandwidth. The idea of professional artist in and of itself is changing as are the ideas of professions elsewhere. Perhaps artistry is now becoming that thing that more people can incorporate into their lives, dispersing it more and thus decomodifying it over time.
CarlT // Oct 26, 2009 at 10:12 pm
“I’m just switched majors from Literature/Writing to physics/biology in part because I was questioning whether I wanted to be a “professional artist.””
But you’re moving to a field with “publish or perish” behavior, and the authors pay the journals to publish the work. Do scientific journals pay authors any royalties?
Bill // Oct 27, 2009 at 5:36 am
Considering the copyright laws exist because Queen Anne was petitioned by publishers who had nothing to publish; a few publishers owned the publishing rights to the books and no one else could publish anything worthwhile; the turnaround to giving the few major corporations the right to own movies, books and music for eternity (or close to it if the copyright is renewed) is strange. If I design and build a chair (or any other product) why can’t I refuse to allow anyone but the buyer to sit in it and why can’t I refuse to allow anyone to look at it to see how it is made? Why must I work for a living while others live off work that may have taken them a few days? I am sick of the greed of the corporations that own the works of artists. They should have no right to hold publishing rights beyond a very limited time! The copyright should be in the hands of the artist and be limited to the time that pays for the effort and offers a reasonable profit.
Noam Gagliardi Rabinovich // Oct 28, 2009 at 6:16 pm
CarlT: In science, publishing is not one’s mean of income. One makes money by working in research (private funded, or public funded), or teaching, consulting, etc. — publishing in peer reviewed journals is simply the way scientists share and improve ideas and discoveries (hence the “peer reviewed” part). Once something is discovered in science, nobody “owns” it (unless we’re talking about something specific like a piece of technology, of course). Einstein didn’t own relativity or the idea of quanta: in fact, as soon as he discovered these ideas, they were already being changed into things he did not agree with at all (quantum theory, and of course the bomb).
Peer reviewed articles are copyrighted, but the studies themselves may be replicated (and in fact are *supposed to*, in order to make sure that the findings are correct).
But even this is changing as better online databases for peer reviewed content are being created, and gaining acceptance. It is possible that in the near future journals such as Nature would be a thing of the past.
—
Bill, — publishing is a double edged sword: publishers make way more money off of a writer’s work than the artist himself does, even after costs are taken into account. But on the other hand, for now at least, there is *no way* any author can sell even close to as much as he can or reach nearly as wide an audience without the help of a publisher.
Self publishing is EXTREMELY costly if you want to make any decent sales, and even most of those who do succeed this way eventually turn to big publishers because sales are not even close.
As far as making money though: when you hear that an author gets a, say, $20 000 advance, what you don’t hear is how much of that goes to agents, lawyers, marketing etc.
Most authors, even relatively well known authors, have day jobs, or make money through teaching and seminars. The idea of the “professional author” who spends all his day pondering, writes a book every five or so years and owns a house in Europe is a bit of a myth, as it represents probably less than 1% of working authors. There are exceptions, but 90% of published authors don’t make enough money off book sales to pay the rent, and off that small percent who do, they usually have to keep up with a demand of 1 or 2 or more books per year, because you still won’t be living off the sales of 1 book, even if it did OK.
My point was that this could be the end of the “professional author” altogether, but that that wouldn’t mean that great writing wouldn’t still be produced. Most authors aren’t doing it for the money as it is, so with the advent of e-publishing, they will now be able to reach that mass audience (potentially, at least) without having to turn to big publishers.