4 ms·
> significantly benefits everyone else making a living off intellectual property. Doesn't that presuppose that the incremental gain from adding another N years
by follower 16y ago
> significantly benefits everyone else making a living off intellectual property.
Doesn't that presuppose that the incremental gain from adding another N years of copyright coverage after an author's death is greater than the potential gain if it was accessible now to people who are making their living or--even--simply living?
It's not unreasonable to assume that an extremely large proportion of creators (who are only a small--but potentially growing--portion of society) will gain no real benefit from their works being covered by copyright for 70-100 years after their death but are negatively affected by everyone else's creations being covered in the same way.
It's not just a question of profit--it's also a question of culture. What wonderful and ground-breaking reinterpretations of culture from the 20th Century are never created--or illegal--because of current copyright law?
- tptacek 16y agoThe date of an author's death has little to do with the value of her creation at the time of its creation. Copyrights are transferable. This business about death is a red herring.
- follower 16y agoExcluding work-for-hire, does a copyright transfer affect the copyright term in a way that makes the date of the original author's death no longer relevant? (IANAL and couldn't find a discussion of this when I had a quick look.) Ignoring the impact of author death still doesn't change my original question of whether a longer term "significantly benefits everyone else making a living off intellectual property" and society in general.
- tptacek 16y agoThis isn't complicated. A copyright is worth more if it lasts longer. An author can sell her rights to a work for more money if copyright is going to protect that work for a longer period of time. People making a living off intellectual property can be expected to make a better living in a world in which copyrighted works have more economic value.
- barrkel 16y agoThe stuff about death + N is an attempt to tie things to an intuition of moral rights; the business case is actually pretty poor in general. The net present values of an asset leased for (say) 30 years, versus 130 years, are surprisingly close in value, not least because of the uncertainty in predicting the future.