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How about this... Everyone gets two copyrights for their lifetime x 2. Five copyrights for their lifetime. Ten for 20 years, Fifty for 10 years, Everything e

by enobrev 11y ago

How about this... Everyone gets two copyrights for their lifetime x 2. Five copyrights for their lifetime. Ten for 20 years, Fifty for 10 years, Everything else expires after, say, 2 years. So you get to protect your most important works, but the rest of us get to take a crack at the things you couldn't quite get right.

nemothekid 11y ago
I look forward to corporations buying lifetime copyrights en-masse.
- enobrev 11y ago
  That's the compromise. Disney gets "The Mouse" for the entirety of its existence as a legal entity, and six more works. And that's it. After that, they'll need to start being thrify with their copyright or release things into the public domain to add new works.
  - nemothekid 11y ago
    I think you are missing my point. Essentially Disney will start buying your lifetime copyrights. Given that there are 300MM Americans, I'd imagine if every American got 2 lifetime copyrights, the market for transferring those copyrights wouldn't be terribly expensive. Disney could probably buy 100 lifetime copyrights for the cost of the legal work they do today.
    - pferde 11y ago
      It would be tied to lifetime of the particular Americans. I imagine assassination black market would flourish. :)
  - halviti 11y ago
    Or they could just create shell companies to own the copyrights, allowing them to have an indefinite number of copyrights for forever!
eru 11y ago
How do you define one work vs two works?
- enobrev 11y ago
  I'm not exactly sure and I'm certainly not big on legalese. The premise is meant to be a compromise, where a select few "works" can be held in practical perpetuity, while simultaneously forcing others to be contributed to the public domain. I do agree, though, that the definition of the term "work" is important and essential with such an idea.
MichaelBurge 11y ago
So corporations get their own copyrights? Then they can just create a new subsidiary to hold each work. Maybe transfer employees to it while producing it, and then move everyone out when it's done. It'd be annoying having to manage all of these subsidiary corporations, but I'm sure they'd be up to the challenge. Also, if copyright can be transferred, then there'd be 2.1 billion lifetime copyrights available. A substantial portion of that would be available on a secondary market, I bet. It still might be better, since not everyone will want to use copyrights on minor works. Then again, you'd be encouraging people to do 'big' works rather than lots of small works, which doesn't seem like something a copyright system should be changing.

by enobrev 11y ago

nemothekid 11y ago

I look forward to corporations buying lifetime copyrights en-masse.

enobrev 11y ago
That's the compromise. Disney gets "The Mouse" for the entirety of its existence as a legal entity, and six more works. And that's it. After that, they'll need to start being thrify with their copyright or release things into the public domain to add new works.
- nemothekid 11y ago
  I think you are missing my point. Essentially Disney will start buying your lifetime copyrights. Given that there are 300MM Americans, I'd imagine if every American got 2 lifetime copyrights, the market for transferring those copyrights wouldn't be terribly expensive. Disney could probably buy 100 lifetime copyrights for the cost of the legal work they do today.
  - pferde 11y ago
    It would be tied to lifetime of the particular Americans. I imagine assassination black market would flourish. :)
- halviti 11y ago
  Or they could just create shell companies to own the copyrights, allowing them to have an indefinite number of copyrights for forever!

eru 11y ago

How do you define one work vs two works?

enobrev 11y ago
I'm not exactly sure and I'm certainly not big on legalese. The premise is meant to be a compromise, where a select few "works" can be held in practical perpetuity, while simultaneously forcing others to be contributed to the public domain. I do agree, though, that the definition of the term "work" is important and essential with such an idea.

MichaelBurge 11y ago

So corporations get their own copyrights? Then they can just create a new subsidiary to hold each work. Maybe transfer employees to it while producing it, and then move everyone out when it's done. It'd be annoying having to manage all of these subsidiary corporations, but I'm sure they'd be up to the challenge. Also, if copyright can be transferred, then there'd be 2.1 billion lifetime copyrights available. A substantial portion of that would be available on a secondary market, I bet. It still might be better, since not everyone will want to use copyrights on minor works. Then again, you'd be encouraging people to do 'big' works rather than lots of small works, which doesn't seem like something a copyright system should be changing.