08-01-2014, 08:15 AM | #16 | |
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08-01-2014, 06:08 PM | #17 | |
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I am not saying every author deserves to make a living by writing or even that most even benefit from copyright. I do think that if a book is good enough to stand the test of time and is still selling 50+ years later, I do not begrudge the author or the authors descendants their piddling royalty payments. The author invests time, intelligence and energy in creating intellectual property the same as I invest time, intelligence and energy in acquiring real property. They may not be the same under the law, but the time, intelligence, energy and even luck generally only differ on an individual basis. Many descendants AFAIK don't bother with royalties hence the orphaned works. I agree orphaned works should be addressed and dealt with, but don't see it as a reason to drastically alter copyright on published works. My stance is that if a work is still being published and sold it has value that deserves monetary recognition to either the author or their heirs. Perhaps that should define copyright. Of course it would be a big pain in the butt to track down all the possible heirs of Shakespeare and send them each a penny or two a year in royalty checks. Helen |
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08-02-2014, 12:20 PM | #18 | |
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Most books that have faded into obscurity have done so because they were ignored, in most cases justly I think. I am a person who is inclined to worry about my heirs, and I have no children. I know many people who live thriftily when they don't have to for just this reason. Building their savings for their descendants. Other friends spend more than they make and one guy told me it was his ambition to die as far in debt as possible. It is a type of genetic programming. You have the ant and the grasshopper and those who fall somewhere in between. But as I have said before, worrying about me or my heirs paying a few cents or even dollars a year to rights holders who inherited these rights, is not even on my list of worries. If the book has value for me, they are welcome to it whether the author cared or not. I am thrifty but hopefully not miserly. Helen |
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08-02-2014, 03:13 PM | #19 |
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I agree that copyright should not have been drastically altered. It should have remained what it was origionally, 14 years plus, at most, 14 more if requested.
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08-04-2014, 11:10 AM | #20 |
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Given that the length of copyright has been a "life + x" term (where "x" was originally 7 years) under English law since the Copyright Act of 1842, that's rather a forlorn hope.
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08-04-2014, 01:59 PM | #21 |
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Harry, I think crossi is referring to your very first copyright law, the Statute of Anne from 1710, that granted, as he wrote, 14 years plus 14 more if requested and nothing after the death.
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08-04-2014, 02:10 PM | #22 |
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08-04-2014, 02:17 PM | #23 |
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I heart the forlorn hope
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08-04-2014, 02:48 PM | #24 |
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Yes, I realised that was what he meant . Just saying that it changed from a fixed term to a "life+x" term over 170 years ago, so it's unlikely it's going to change back again.
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08-04-2014, 03:41 PM | #25 |
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Oh, than I didn't understand your post properly, sorry!
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08-04-2014, 04:20 PM | #26 | |
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Now there are possibly a million a year and over probably 1/3 by trad publishers. Most of these books will not bring the authors long term benefits via copyright. My thinking is which you obviously disagree with although you chose to ignore it IIRC is that the very few authors of books that withstand the test of time and are still selling 14 or 50 or 70 years later deserve to get paid a small portion of the sales price whether to themselves or their estates. The books that you or no one else wants to pay for, well why do you care f they are copyrighted? Helen |
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08-04-2014, 04:31 PM | #27 |
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In what way is it ludicrously small?
The important thing (from mine and others' perspective) is that copyright exists for no reason other than to incentivize creative work. From the standpoint of copyright, no one deserves a penny! And 14/28 years IMO provides just as much incentive as life+70. No one has ever doubted that longer copyrights make more money for authors/publishers. The assumption that we doubt that, is offensive, insomuch as it implies a complete void of intelligence on par with small children and babies. Last edited by eschwartz; 08-04-2014 at 04:36 PM. |
08-04-2014, 05:12 PM | #28 | |
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I suspect this misunderstanding is encouraged by authors (and, perhaps to a lesser degree by publishers) to serve the purpose of protecting what they think they deserve. In that light, anything beyond life and, say, 14 years maximum if still alive then for example, seems excessive to me. However, if a particular democracy considers authors deserve an income then that needs to be handled in a way other than copyright, however that would place them in some kind of elite income protected sector of the working population (undeserved, in my opinion). |
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08-04-2014, 08:35 PM | #29 |
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