Since you're comparing copyright to patents: How about corporations that own a copyright have to pay a couple of thousand dollars to register the copyright, and have to pay a maintenance fee of $1000 a year per title per registration area. If they can't make enough money to cover the fees, it obviously isn't worth protecting (for the corporation) so the idea reverts back to the original author, and his 5 to 10 year "monopoly" can be sold again so some publisher who CAN make it work, and then reverts to public use later. Artists win, the public wins, and businesses keep money making property protected as long as they get off their asses and actually earn their money like the artists/authors do. All that "fee" money goes to public coffers and keeps the public taxes down.
Slashdot Mirror
Since you're comparing copyright to patents:
How about corporations that own a copyright have to pay a couple of thousand dollars to register the copyright, and have to pay a maintenance fee of $1000 a year per title per registration area. If they can't make enough money to cover the fees, it obviously isn't worth protecting (for the corporation) so the idea reverts back to the original author, and his 5 to 10 year "monopoly" can be sold again so some publisher who CAN make it work, and then reverts to public use later. Artists win, the public wins, and businesses keep money making property protected as long as they get off their asses and actually earn their money like the artists/authors do. All that "fee" money goes to public coffers and keeps the public taxes down.