Coffee With Scott Adams — Knowledge Archive May 24, 2026
Scott Adams Philosophy Archive
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ntil that happens we're going to forge on. The estimate is that Earth will reach 8 billion people by January 1st, so there will be somebody who is designated as the 8 billionth person to be born. Would that be cool? Now of course they're going to have to make it up because they don't really know who is the exact 8 billionth person, and people are dying at the same time people are being born, so y…

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ve to see the Apple Music anymore. It actually acts like a virus, like a legitimate how the hell do you get rid of a virus. All right, I'll work on that.

With AI there are big questions about copyright as you know. But I found that there are quite a few people on social media who believe that copyrights should go away and that you're hurting the commons, you know the public's common good, by having copyrights. I didn't know there were so many people who didn't understand how copyrights work.

Let me explain to you. Copyright is why you have good material. Copyright is the reason people create art. I make three to five jokes a day commercially in two comics a day and I post things and everything. Basically everything I do for my entire career I would not have done any of it if copyrights did not exist. The existence of copyright creates art.

If you don't understand that, because a lot of people said well you know you selfish artists and selfish creators are creating art and then hogging it to yourself with these copyrights when it really should be part of the public domain. And I think to myself are these the same people who think that communi

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sm works? Do you not understand the connection between human incentives and then what people actually do? Copyright is the incentive for me the artist to make art. Without copyright I'm not going to make a thing. But the people who think that copyright should go away, they have this imagination that artists will create things because they have to. Are you kidding me? No no. I do this for a living…

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