4 ms·

My proposal: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17463018 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17463018

pbhjpbhj 8y ago
To me that's a bit hard, one needs to balance things so as not to disproportionately harm individual inventors/creators. It would be great IMO to link renewal to revenue, but too difficult in practice (and too many potential loopholes). One problem with early, high cost, renewal fees is that companies know they can wait out an individual; you're not going to pay a £M renewal without already having done serious revenue. It can take a long time to get a new technology, or a new book, or whatever, to market -- the IPR system needs to enable individual creators.
- anticensor 8y ago
  3.5 years are enough to raise an apprentice/intern to a junior level self sufficient proficiency (once you have a junior worker, you are expected to efficiently produce or perform your innovation). There are no renewal fees in first 3.5 years in my proposal.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > It would be great IMO to link renewal to revenue, but too difficult in practice (and too many potential loopholes). Charge proportional to declared value, with the declared value also an offer to accept payment from any combination of parties to buy the work into the public domain at that price. (It's not exactly based on revenue, but based on value to the copyright holder, but that's close enough to the same thing.)
  - zyx321 8y ago
    * The incumbent can instantly kill any new competitors by buying their core technologies into the public domain. * If you're creating something for the first time e.g. a small indie game, you need to know before you release it whether or not it will become the next minecraft.
    - dragonwriter 8y ago
      > The incumbent can instantly kill any new competitors by buying their core technologies into the public domain By buying them out at a price set by the competitor involved, sure, and only after the first renewal is due, sure. Of course, a monopolistic incumbent can have the public (instead of tolerating monopoly rents) and prospective competition band toether to buy it's technology out into the public domain for competition to use, too. > If you're creating something for the first time e.g. a small indie game, you need to know before you release it whether or not it will become the next minecraft. Well, no, because we are talking about the method for setting a renewal tax for copyright, not an initial one. So you have to have an idea of how valuable it is to you before the first renewal. (I like the 4-12 year granted period proposed upthread, but using the declared value approach I would probably go with annual renewals with a long limit—maybe even the current maximum—rather than 6mo renewal with a 21 year cap.) I might keep the idea of having an exponentially escalating fee by doing that for a required floor to declared value of a work (maybe even instead of a maximum time limit.) Have a nominal floor at the first renewal (say, $1 in today's money) and increasing by 50% each year, with the annual fee as 5% of the declared value. Sure, you can keep renewing as long as you want, but after 50 years of renewals you're at a $32 million minimum renewal fee.

To me that's a bit hard, one needs to balance things so as not to disproportionately harm individual inventors/creators. It would be great IMO to link renewal to revenue, but too difficult in practice (and too many potential loopholes). One problem with early, high cost, renewal fees is that companies know they can wait out an individual; you're not going to pay a £M renewal without already having done serious revenue. It can take a long time to get a new technology, or a new book, or whatever, to market -- the IPR system needs to enable individual creators.

anticensor 8y ago
3.5 years are enough to raise an apprentice/intern to a junior level self sufficient proficiency (once you have a junior worker, you are expected to efficiently produce or perform your innovation). There are no renewal fees in first 3.5 years in my proposal.
dragonwriter 8y ago
> It would be great IMO to link renewal to revenue, but too difficult in practice (and too many potential loopholes). Charge proportional to declared value, with the declared value also an offer to accept payment from any combination of parties to buy the work into the public domain at that price. (It's not exactly based on revenue, but based on value to the copyright holder, but that's close enough to the same thing.)
- zyx321 8y ago
  * The incumbent can instantly kill any new competitors by buying their core technologies into the public domain. * If you're creating something for the first time e.g. a small indie game, you need to know before you release it whether or not it will become the next minecraft.
  - dragonwriter 8y ago
    > The incumbent can instantly kill any new competitors by buying their core technologies into the public domain By buying them out at a price set by the competitor involved, sure, and only after the first renewal is due, sure. Of course, a monopolistic incumbent can have the public (instead of tolerating monopoly rents) and prospective competition band toether to buy it's technology out into the public domain for competition to use, too. > If you're creating something for the first time e.g. a small indie game, you need to know before you release it whether or not it will become the next minecraft. Well, no, because we are talking about the method for setting a renewal tax for copyright, not an initial one. So you have to have an idea of how valuable it is to you before the first renewal. (I like the 4-12 year granted period proposed upthread, but using the declared value approach I would probably go with annual renewals with a long limit—maybe even the current maximum—rather than 6mo renewal with a 21 year cap.) I might keep the idea of having an exponentially escalating fee by doing that for a required floor to declared value of a work (maybe even instead of a maximum time limit.) Have a nominal floor at the first renewal (say, $1 in today's money) and increasing by 50% each year, with the annual fee as 5% of the declared value. Sure, you can keep renewing as long as you want, but after 50 years of renewals you're at a $32 million minimum renewal fee.