In the USA only few authors actually live by their pen.
Even fewer musicians, not to mention actors, eke out subsistence level
income from their craft. Those who do can no longer be considered
merely creative people. Madonna, Michael Jackson, Schwarzenegger and
Grisham are businessmen at least as much as they are artists.
Intellectual property is a relatively new notion. In the near past, no
one considered knowledge or the fruits of creativity (artwork, designs)
as 'patentable', or as someone's 'property'. The artist was but a mere
channel through which divine grace flowed. Texts, discoveries,
inventions, works of art and music, designs - all belonged to the
community and could be replicated freely. True, the chosen ones, the
conduits, were revered. But they were rarely financially rewarded.
Well into the 19th century, artists and innovators were commissioned -
and salaried - to produce their works of art and contrivances.
The advent of the Industrial Revolution - and the imagery of the
romantic lone inventor toiling on his brainchild in a basement or,
later, a garage - gave rise to the patent. The more massive the
markets became, the more sophisticated the sales and marketing
techniques, the bigger the financial stakes - the larger loomed the
issue of intellectual property.
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