Quote:
Originally Posted by calvin-c
I think you're confusing 'defending the patent' with 'producing the product'.
Copyright law (in the US, at least) already requires defending the copyright. If you ignore the infringement for too long after you become aware of it then you'll lose the right the copyright, i.e. you'll lose the right to sue the infringing party. (Um, let me reword that-anybody can sue, for anything, at any time-but you'll lose the suit unless you have the right to sue.)
AFAIK 'too long' isn't defined so it depends on the lawyer, the judge, and the circumstances. (For instance, the period in which you have the right to sue only starts when you become aware of the infringement-the penalties, of course, start accruing at the same time as the infringement occurs whether you're aware of it or not.)
As for the length, I only see two possibilities-a fixed length or a variable length. A fixed length can result in the copyright expiring while the author is still alive, depriving him of 'ownership' of his work. But making it variable (usually 'life') can result in the author having no 'work' to pass on to his heirs.
Consider the situation of John Kennedy Toole, who wrote 'A Confederacy of Dunces'. Admittedly his heir was his mother, but maybe that's why he wrote it-so he could support her. (I don't think that's the reason, but the situation wouldn't be any different if it was. Unless you want to really distort the idea of copyrights?)
Anyway, he committed suicide before his book was published. Had the copyright been for his lifetime only his heirs quite possibly would have realized no income whatsoever from it. (I suppose some people would contribute, out of fairness, even though it was in the public domain-but I doubt if any of those people would be the ones publishing the book.)
So, limiting the copyright to lifetime is, IMO, unfair-but a fixed length copyright also seems unfair, so it seems to me that the current system (life + a fixed period) is the best compromise. That being the case, what's a fair period? (IMO 25 years is about right. 75 is definitely too long.)
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Most copyright jurisdictions have a separate copyright (usually a fixed length) for posthumously published works. The classic answer is life or -X- where X is a fixed number of years (and posthumous works get X).
But let's face it, too much money, too many politicians needing money, for it
ever to get shortened.....