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Define 'abandoned'? The copyright owner is within their rights to 'rest' their property for a period to increase its value.

by yrro 4y ago

AussieWog93 4y ago
They honestly shouldn't be, though. This is by definition a market failure.
- t0suj4 4y ago
  Except it's the government standing in the way of supply meeting the demand.
fortyseven 4y ago
Gross.
mensetmanusman 4y ago
That’s a hack. Many would love to do that in my field (materials R&D) due to the increased monetary gain, but that is harming-society behavior.
EvanAnderson 4y ago
The usual response to this is: Let’s make copyright terms shorter and charge exponentially-increasing fees to renew the registration. Works that continue to have value to rights holders will justify their registration expense. Works that don’t have value will return to the public domain. It sounds like a good idea to me but I don’t see it having any chance of it happening.
LocalH 4y ago
Rentseeking the public culture.
derbOac 4y ago
I guess I disagree that should be within their rights? Seems like a "reasonable people can disagree" thing to me. I'd just define it as "not making property available for licensing or purchase for X amount of time" or make them subject to lawsuits for not making good faith efforts to license or sell the property. Seems tractable to me, just not necessarily something easily defined in a HN thread.
- hakfoo 4y ago
  I figured an alternative angle was to provide a state-managed licensing board. If the original rights-holder doesn't want to sell, or is intentionally obtuse (i. e. making obvious bad-faith offers), you'd be able to buy a license from the state and the rightsholder can claim the funds from the licensing board. The pricing would be intended to be "convenience store pricing"-- too expensive to be a good choice most of the time, but when nothing else is available, (or you want something otherwise unobtainable, like a wide-scale blanket license over a large set of content), it's still a better deal than having to go without.

Define 'abandoned'? The copyright owner is within their rights to 'rest' their property for a period to increase its value.

by yrro 4y ago

Define 'abandoned'? The copyright owner is within their rights to 'rest' their property for a period to increase its value.

AussieWog93 4y ago

They honestly shouldn't be, though. This is by definition a market failure.

t0suj4 4y ago
Except it's the government standing in the way of supply meeting the demand.

fortyseven 4y ago

Gross.

mensetmanusman 4y ago

That’s a hack. Many would love to do that in my field (materials R&D) due to the increased monetary gain, but that is harming-society behavior.

EvanAnderson 4y ago

The usual response to this is: Let’s make copyright terms shorter and charge exponentially-increasing fees to renew the registration. Works that continue to have value to rights holders will justify their registration expense. Works that don’t have value will return to the public domain. It sounds like a good idea to me but I don’t see it having any chance of it happening.

LocalH 4y ago

Rentseeking the public culture.

derbOac 4y ago

I guess I disagree that should be within their rights? Seems like a "reasonable people can disagree" thing to me. I'd just define it as "not making property available for licensing or purchase for X amount of time" or make them subject to lawsuits for not making good faith efforts to license or sell the property. Seems tractable to me, just not necessarily something easily defined in a HN thread.

hakfoo 4y ago
I figured an alternative angle was to provide a state-managed licensing board. If the original rights-holder doesn't want to sell, or is intentionally obtuse (i. e. making obvious bad-faith offers), you'd be able to buy a license from the state and the rightsholder can claim the funds from the licensing board. The pricing would be intended to be "convenience store pricing"-- too expensive to be a good choice most of the time, but when nothing else is available, (or you want something otherwise unobtainable, like a wide-scale blanket license over a large set of content), it's still a better deal than having to go without.