I was making today some carrot juice (at 1 AM), and I was thinking about the laws regarding copyright around the world, and how we got into this new millennium, yet we see how laws from several centuries ago crept in our society, affecting us.

The copyright seems obsolete to me, in this age, and we have to adapt the laws to our new society. Yet this is not happening, because things are more profitable for some corporation the way they are, and they only want greater control over what we see, what we can share with family, what we can do with information in our society. This strikes to me as unfair, to say the least. Copyright was created around 1700, in a attempt to incentivize authors to publish theirs works, giving them the right to prohibit others from copying their works, so they would make money. The printing press was becoming more common, and creating cheap copies fast.

I somehow made a link with the fact that back in time, if a boy has a clear and pleasant voice, and he could sing, he would be castrated, so his voice won't change during puberty, and thinking how awful would be if this like that crept in our modern life. (this wasn't a law, it was more of a custom, but you can see the link, can't you?)

So, the problems lies in the inflexibility of the laws: while that inhumane tradition faded, laws became obsolete much slower, harder. So how to we make the laws more flexible, more dynamic? Enter the world of programming! We will transition today from this Assembly code of laws to a superior language. Let's call it the Law Generator, LG for short.

So, what if we think about laws at another level: not indicating what to do in a certain situation, but what purposes do we have, not how to achieve them. Let's make laws that make laws: this is called meta-programming, or, in this case meta-lawing.

Because I hate how the laws are formulated, (the law makers love to include a ton of redundant characters, lots of blah-blah-blah), so we will use a language already invented, called Gherkin, that can be parsed even by a computer:

Feature: Spread as much information as possible to the largest number of people possible
We want that information (such as texts, stories, music, movies) would reach
and impact (hopefully in a good way) as much people as possible
We want the humanity to prosper

Scenario: We want to incentivize authors
    Given that authors need means to live
    And and they might want to create for a living
    When an author creates something
    And and publishes that thing
    Then the state is going to give that guy some money

A lot more of those scenarios can be written, expressing our intents regarding the rule that humans must abide.

While I was thinking about meta-programming laws, I saw another feature missing, that we, programmers enjoy: variables. Think of it like this: a mathematical formula to determine how many years does rapists have to stay in prison, or a corrupt politician. Getting back to our copyright LG:

Feature: Spread as much information as possible to the largest number of people possible
We want that information (such as texts, stories, music, movies) would reach
and impact (hopefully in a good way) as much people as possible
We want the humanity to prosper

@reward = $200

Scenario: We want to incentivize authors
    Given that authors need means to live
    And and they might want to create for a living
    When an author creates something with @value = 20
    And and publishes that thing
    Then the state is going to give that guy @reward + @value * 5

So the said author will receive $300 for his work. Of course, we can do much fancier stuff with those variables. What do you think about the LG?

Q&A:

• "Meta-what?": some of the content might be geared more towards programmers, and might not be understood by mere-mortals. Sorry about that.

• "You piece of trash! I definitely do no agree with you, and I want to curse you! Where are the comments?!": Sorry about that, I don't have comments at the moment. However, you can send me that on my e-mail

• "Where'd you got that information? Who told you this stuff?": I've read about it on the internet, I've read some essays of Dr. Richard Stallman, and that's pretty much it. I don't have time nor motivation to add a bibliography to this article.

WARNING: I'm not a lawyer, neither literate regarding laws, and I never made a programming language. The views expressed below are my own, and may not represent the ones of the "Fundația Ceata" Also, be wary of guys who builds the foundation of laws while drinking carrot juice.