>Is art, similarly to science, not an iterative process based on the input of dozens, hundreds, thousands of people that came before us? Are we all not standing on the shoulders of giants, pushing just a few steps forward more, both because we like what came before us but want to see it go someplace new?
Yes, and a lot of us want to be paid for our contributions to this mass endeavour.
Case in point, lots of those giants on whose shoulders we stand got ripped off and died peniless.
Of course, I'm not opposed to people being paid- I commission art regularly, I've got too many friends as artists to count, and the startup idea I've spent ages working on is based on the idea that artists currently don't charge enough for their work, and deserve more.
But you don't avoid that by retaining tight control over your IP. You do that by providing a product people genuinely want, and giving them a way to pay for it conveniently. No one thing is an instant solution, and the possibility of your original artistic work being outright stolen for someone else is incredibly rare, as people naturally want to see more from the original author.
Yes, and a lot of us want to be paid for our contributions to this mass endeavour.
Case in point, lots of those giants on whose shoulders we stand got ripped off and died peniless.
Obligatory link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5IV23g-fE&feature=kp
(Harlan Elisson, "Pay the writer").