Copyright and Intellectual Property Stories

For some time now, my colleagues and I have been compiling a list of works of art on copyright piracy. And recently, I suddenly found out that a user under the nickname Red Tiger (has not yet been able to contact him) has also compiled a similar list for a long time, and he found many more such works. Those who wish can familiarize themselves with his list and additions in the comments on the search phrase “copyright reader”.

I combined our lists, and tried to discard the least interesting works, which often are simply artistically written disputes about copyright. The result was about 20 stories. Links are provided only for those works that the authors have published themselves, or are distributed under free licenses (there were cases when the authors protested against posting links to works). Some things are written by professionals, some by amateurs, including programmers. I don’t advise reading everything at once, since the topic, in general, is one, and can be boring, although the plots and dramatic effects are very diverse.

1932. Karel Chapek. “On Five Breads” (6k)
On Jesus copying two fish and five breads.

1955. Robert Sachs "Controlex"(Don't Shoot) (20k)
What would happen if even individual phrases were protected by copyright.

1963. Sergey Lvov “Seventh move” (97k)
A long detective story about the times when writing books was put on the conveyor. It contains only a small mention of copyright (in chapter VI).

1972. Viktor Kolupaev “The Singing Forest” (36k)
Probably the kindest story about intellectual property.

1982. Spider Robinson's “Life Is Short” (Melancholy Elephants) (22k)
About the ever-increasing terms of copyright and what creativity is.

1997. Richard Stallman 's Right to Read (7k)
As the name implies, this is about copyright for books.

2002. Konstantin Krylov (Mikhail Kharitonov) (untitled) (4k)
A very short and very funny story. Here is copyright in a figurative sense. On the products.

2003. Stas Kozlovsky “Licensed Dostoevsky” or the end of the era of paper books (5k)
About the impossibility of copying, commerce, and everything connected with it.

2004. Dalia Truskinovskaya “Creeping Word” (38k)
Another story on the subject of copyright protection of individual phrases and even words.

2005. Norwegian Forest (Nikolai Danilov) “License for Justice” (8k)
Once again about the tightening of copyright in general. The irony of the story is that it was written for the anti-piracy contest organized by Microsoft under the slogan “His example is another science” (and won a prize).

2006. Corey Doctorow “Print-to-Prison!” (“Printcrime”) (4k)
On unlicensed copying of physical objects.

2008. Josip Beard “The Bright Future of Copyright” (2k)
A small sketch about copyright, without the usual horrors of this time.

2008. Lex Kravecki, “Who is to us with a sword” (30k)
A story about legal incidents, copyright is mentioned only as one example.

2008. Denis Lapitsky “Copyright”(13k)
And again about copyright protection of individual phrases and words. Although the theme is the same, the plots are different.

2008. Mercy Shelley (Alexey Andreev) “451 megahertz” (42k)
Enhancing copyright in the field of music. Cyberpunk, brainwashing, but overall it's not so terrible.

2009. Maxim Makarenkov “Trucker” (18k)
An episode from the life of a pirate trucker during the forced listening to pop music.

2009. Seshat (Tatyana Kigim) “Another's Machine ” (14k)
Tighter and broader concept of copyright. Children also will not evade responsibility.

2010. Mikhail Era “Buying” (4k)
Deep dissemination of the principles of copyright on household appliances. Piracy continues.

2010. Sergey Shilov “The Right to Write” (25k)
The writer is offered an ideal contract: guaranteed protection against piracy. But there is a catch.

2010. ID-Daemon “I, the Pirate” (16k)
On the tightening of copyright and the possibility of punishing the innocent.

2010. Maxim Savenkov “Copy-magic” (40k)
The story of copyright transferred to the world of magic.

2012. Alexander Yazvetsky “Web Site” (12k)
On Intellectual Property in the Field of Design and Patents.