Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
It's not "separate from all other forms of human endeavour". If you buy shares in a company, you can leave those shares to your family, who will be able to "harvest money" from them after your death. An author's legacy to his family is the income from his books.
|
But to buy those shares in the first place, I had to earn money. Nobody except copyright holders can earn money after they're dead.
At death I can pass on my worldly goods, based upon what I earned. I can defer payment of money, lots of things. But I can't earn new money. The assets I pass on may earn income, but they do that irrrespective of my corporeal status. (Or who owns them.)
Only copyright holders keep earning from their labor after death. Nobody else. I don't see the philosophical reason for them to be treated differently.