Quote:
Originally Posted by SleepyBob
2. Most of the profits from most books are realized in the first X years (say 20, or 50 even) after initial publication.
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We've discussed this here a little bit before. I wish I knew what X is for books. I know that for music, X is only eight weeks! 80% of a CD's sales occurs within eight weeks of its release.
Perhaps I'm in the minority here, but I don't really care about the issue of encouraging the writer to write more books. I don't think that that should be a matter of public policy.
I think that an author should be fairly compensated, and I would be quite content if this compensation lasted the rest of his life. But when he dies, the work should belong to the world immediately, not decades later.
By the way, while we here are drafting new copyright laws, it seems reasonable to me to make a distinction regarding the book and profit-making ventures based on the book. We can have two types of public domain. The first would allow the world to publish the book. The second would allow the world to make movies and t-shirts based upon it. I don't have any sympathy for the heirs when it comes to publishing the book, but I might have a lot when it comes to making a movie based upon it.