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The purpose of copyright is to encourage authors to create more works. If there's no copyright it's easy for anyone to copy the work without paying, so there's

The purpose of copyright is to encourage authors to create more works. If there's no copyright it's easy for anyone to copy the work without paying, so there's no incentive to make works for money. If copyright lasts for the entire lifetime of the author there's no incentive to keep making new works after they've become successful. The ideal term should be long enough to make a profit form the work, but short enough to encourage authors to keep making new works for continual income.

philipov 6y ago
Payment is not the primary incentive for artists to make creative works. The need for payment in order to survive is an obstacle that needs to be overcome so one can pursue their true incentives. If you are the sort of person whose primary motivation is money, becoming an artist is one of the worst paths for achieving that.
criddell 6y ago
> The ideal term should be long enough to make a profit form the work, but short enough to encourage authors to keep making new works for continual income. This assumes that profit is the main motivator for all of an artist's life. I could imagine a songwriter like Dylan getting discouraged if he were to see his work being used to promote products or causes that he despises.
runarberg 6y ago
> The purpose of copyright is to encourage authors to create more works. Is this true? I know in many cases copyright does the complete opposite as it hinders artists from creating derivative work. Then there is a whole genre of art—folk art; which is arguably the most popular genre—where artists continue to do art where the copyright is hardly ever perused, enforced, or if present almost always ignored. You could just as easily make the case that in the art genre where copyright is the most loose, the amount of art created is the greatest.
- jjk166 6y ago
  Article 1 Section 8 Clause 8 of the US Constitution: [The Congress shall have power] “To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” It's neither guaranteed to be an effective or necessary means of achieving that objective, but that is undeniably copyright's stated purpose.

philipov 6y ago

Payment is not the primary incentive for artists to make creative works. The need for payment in order to survive is an obstacle that needs to be overcome so one can pursue their true incentives. If you are the sort of person whose primary motivation is money, becoming an artist is one of the worst paths for achieving that.

criddell 6y ago

> The ideal term should be long enough to make a profit form the work, but short enough to encourage authors to keep making new works for continual income. This assumes that profit is the main motivator for all of an artist's life. I could imagine a songwriter like Dylan getting discouraged if he were to see his work being used to promote products or causes that he despises.

runarberg 6y ago

> The purpose of copyright is to encourage authors to create more works. Is this true? I know in many cases copyright does the complete opposite as it hinders artists from creating derivative work. Then there is a whole genre of art—folk art; which is arguably the most popular genre—where artists continue to do art where the copyright is hardly ever perused, enforced, or if present almost always ignored. You could just as easily make the case that in the art genre where copyright is the most loose, the amount of art created is the greatest.

jjk166 6y ago
Article 1 Section 8 Clause 8 of the US Constitution: [The Congress shall have power] “To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” It's neither guaranteed to be an effective or necessary means of achieving that objective, but that is undeniably copyright's stated purpose.