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Eternal Copyright: a Modest Proposal

Posted by Soulskill on from the just-a-matter-of-time dept.

New submitter SpockLogic writes "The Telegraphs has a tongue in cheek essay in praise of eternal copyright by the founder of an online games company. Quoting: 'Imagine you're a new parent at 30 years old and you've just published a bestselling new novel. Under the current system, if you lived to 70 years old and your descendants all had children at the age of 30, the copyright in your book – and thus the proceeds – would provide for your children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren. But what, I ask, about your great-great-great-grandchildren? What do they get? How can our laws be so heartless as to deny them the benefit of your hard work in the name of some do-gooding concept as the "public good," simply because they were born a mere century and a half after the book was written? After all, when you wrote your book, it sprung from your mind fully-formed, without requiring any inspiration from other creative works – you owe nothing at all to the public. And what would the public do with your book, even if they had it? Most likely, they'd just make it worse.'"

10 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. Are you crazy?!? by AngryDeuce · · Score: 5, Funny

    You call it sarcasm, they call it talking points. Stop giving them ideas, asshole!!

  2. Micky Mouse Copyright by wonderboss · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What we really need is a special copyright for Mickey and the rest of the Disney characters
    so that The Walt Disney Company can stop lobbying to extend all copyrights.

    --
    more cowbell
    1. Re:Micky Mouse Copyright by jcrb · · Score: 5, Interesting

      What we really need is a special copyright for Mickey and the rest of the Disney characters
      so that The Walt Disney Company can stop lobbying to extend all copyrights.

      I've said the same thing many times, but sadly it would never happen.

      But suddenly you make me think of something that might work Reset all copyright terms back to something simple like 50 years from publication. BUT, you can extend the copyright for as long as you want for a payment each year of

        $1 Million + $100,000 * years over 50 since publication , (in inflation adjusted dollars)

      so $1M at year 50, $1.5M at 55, $2M at 60, and so on

      If you have Winnie he Pooh, you can pay for as long is it makes sense to do so, if something has little value it will go into the public domain at 50 years.

      The money collected for the copyright extensions can be first directed to scanning everything the Library of Congress or any other library has to be put online so that it really does go to the public domain.

      --
      -jon
    2. Re:Micky Mouse Copyright by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Starting from year one the copyright costs $1 and doubles every year. So year 2 is $2, year 3 is $4, etc.

    3. Re:Micky Mouse Copyright by need4mospd · · Score: 5, Informative
      I like this plan. Copyright fees would cross $1,000,000 by 20 years.

      If Disney was to renew their Mickey Mouse copyright this year, it would cost them $19,342,813,113,834,066,795,298,816.

    4. Re:Micky Mouse Copyright by _xeno_ · · Score: 5, Interesting

      they laughed about how needless yet simple it was to crush out and poison the public domain from which Walt's famous works initially sprang.

      Incidentally, if you think Disney is done ripping off the public domain, then you've missed John Carter. Wondering why on Earth Disney would create a film about a Civil War vet who is sent to Mars to save the Princess of Helium?

      Because it's based on the now public domain A Princess of Mars .

      Disney is, to this day, still profiting off the public domain, while refusing to allow anything they have made to ever enter it.

      I'm sure you're all completely shocked to discover that. Completely.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
  3. I'm all for it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm all for eternal copyright. However, after a certain amount of time (say 20-30 years or so), you would have to start paying a fee to the government to maintain your copyright. This fee would increase at an exponential rate for every year after that. This way companies that have a valuable copyrights could hold on to it for at least some time, but the vast majority of creative works would be converted to public domain within a reasonable time frame.

    (I also think patents could work similarly, except that the exponential fees would start at say 3-5 years and with a fixed timelimit of 20 years after which the patent will expire.)

    1. Re:I'm all for it by gman003 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I say start it immediately, at $1. Then double it each year. Math so simple, even Congress can understand it.

      In a decade, it'll cost just over a grand a year. By two decades, it'll be costing over a million. Even 30+-year copyrights would be possible, if they were worth billions of dollars to whoever owned them.

      This would also allow for near-immediate entry into the public domain of works by extinct companies. Abandonware would flourish - when a company goes bankrupt, unless their copyrights get bought up, their products would enter the public domain within a year.

  4. Re:Another way of eternity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    No, it will definitely end. About 70 years after the last human died.

    you think copyright will be ended by the extinction of the human race?

    oh you poor naive sod, there are plans for that.

  5. Re:Please be satire by danbert8 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have a new disciplinary policy I'd like to institute called "No Child's Left Behind". You spank them, but you can only hit their right butt cheek.

    --
    Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?