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I think this illustrates how screwed up copyright has become. I dream of a world where copyright lasts for 14 years or the copyright holder dies, which ever co

I think this illustrates how screwed up copyright has become. I dream of a world where copyright lasts for 14 years or the copyright holder dies, which ever comes last. Thus an individual can retain copyright for life. If he or she dies before 14 years have passed the heirs will benefit for however much of the 14 years are left. Corporations would never hold a copyright for longer than 14 years. I'm convinced that this would be a fair system for everyone and would return copyright to its original intention; to promote creativity and writing rather than being a corporate cash machine that screwes everybody other than the large corporations.

moultano 16y ago
In your system could corporations own copyrights? In that case how long would the copyright last? What about works by many authors? (Mostly agree with you, but the devil is in the details.)
- deadcyclo 16y ago
  No problem with many authors, simply expire when the last author dies. Corporations I sort of already said something about. However I must admit I like how things work in the Norwegian equivalent of copyright: You can transfer "copyright" to corporations, but if, and only if there is an employee relationship (either you are employed or working as an independent contractor). This for example means that as a student you retain full "copyright" to all of your work (master thesis etc.), but as a professor it can be transfered to the university. In addition you always retain your "ideal rights" no matter what, even if the rest of the "copyright" is transfered to your employee. I don't think american copyright has an equivalent to this. Basically it means that no matter what you have 1) the right to be identified as the creator and 2) the right to deny derivative works to be associated to you. This means that if somebody makes a movie based on your book you can say "Hey, this movie completely misses the point, I don't want to be associated to it in any shape or form" and the creator of the movie cannot use your name at all. This does however mean that there is no such thing as public domain in Norway, since there is no way of giving up your "ideal rights". Even if you put something out there under terms that in the US would be public domain, you cannot give up your right to be identified as the creator or your right to not be associated with derivative works.

moultano 16y ago

In your system could corporations own copyrights? In that case how long would the copyright last? What about works by many authors? (Mostly agree with you, but the devil is in the details.)

deadcyclo 16y ago
No problem with many authors, simply expire when the last author dies. Corporations I sort of already said something about. However I must admit I like how things work in the Norwegian equivalent of copyright: You can transfer "copyright" to corporations, but if, and only if there is an employee relationship (either you are employed or working as an independent contractor). This for example means that as a student you retain full "copyright" to all of your work (master thesis etc.), but as a professor it can be transfered to the university. In addition you always retain your "ideal rights" no matter what, even if the rest of the "copyright" is transfered to your employee. I don't think american copyright has an equivalent to this. Basically it means that no matter what you have 1) the right to be identified as the creator and 2) the right to deny derivative works to be associated to you. This means that if somebody makes a movie based on your book you can say "Hey, this movie completely misses the point, I don't want to be associated to it in any shape or form" and the creator of the movie cannot use your name at all. This does however mean that there is no such thing as public domain in Norway, since there is no way of giving up your "ideal rights". Even if you put something out there under terms that in the US would be public domain, you cannot give up your right to be identified as the creator or your right to not be associated with derivative works.