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Originally Posted by Andrew H.
Why copyright and not other forms of property? By this logic, we might as well say that when you die, all of your property goes to the state rather than to your heirs.
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There are people who would indeed argue that that's how it should work. I'm personally not that hard-core. But also I don't think I need to repeat all the arguments about the original intent of copyright (and IP in general), and how current laws that seem to lock up copyright forever aren't in the public interest. Having said that ....
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Aside from which, copyright needs to have a predictable termination point so that companies are willing to buy it in the first place. Why would anyone pay millions of dollars for the rights to make a movie of, say, Harry Potter, when those rights could be obtained for free if Rowlings were hit by a bus? The period should also be long enough that the author can get a good price for selling the copyrighted work (meaning that he is selling the rights for a long enough period of time for someone to want to pay a lot of money for it).
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.... I'll concede your point: there
should be a predictable termination. I don't know what kind of duration is fair and makes sense; perhaps something like "15 years or the author's death, whichever is longer"? But yes, you're absolutely right.
Craig