>I have no idea what this discount rate you’re talking about is (I don’t think we don’t have anything like that in the UK) He's talking about the discount rate

>I have no idea what this discount rate you’re talking about is (I don’t think we don’t have anything like that in the UK) He's talking about the discount rate in the sense of net present value calculations[0]. Roughly, the idea is that if something will give me £100 in a year, I shouldn't be willing to pay £100 for it today. Because I could alternatively get £100 in a year by lending out £95 today at interest, I should only be willing pay £95 for ANY asset (say rights to a song) that will pay me £100 a year from now. The alternative interest rate one can earn in this context is known as the discount rate. The idea from GP is that with compound interest, the value today of the payments I expect in year 70 are small relative to what I'd expect to make in the first few years because they're penalized by so many more years of potential interest. As a result, shortening copyright protections shouldn't change the value to an investor of funding new art by TOO much. [0]https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/discountrate.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/discountrate.asp