[Daithi]

Copyrights that last forever are a truly bad idea. Just imagine a world where you had to pay the descendants of every work ever written. How would you track down the rightful copyright holder to Shakespeare's work, or Homer's work, or Dickens' work, or any author who is more than just a couple of generations old? We would soon run the risk of great works of art being lost forever. Actually, this is a problem we have right now. There are millions of books, songs, paintings, and movies that are disappearing from our culture forever because nobody knows who has the legal right to these works of art.

Humankind itself advances from the copying of "ideas". This isn't theft. We copy each other all the time. Someone comes up with a good idea and we copy it. Imagine science if we couldn't copy and expand upon the ideas of those who came before us. Imagine having to pay the descendants of Newton (and/or Leibniz) every time someone wanted to use calculus. After all, if Stephanie Meyers' descendants should get paid forever for the Twilight Series then certainly Newton's and Leibniz's should get paid for calculus.

Intellectual property is also simply not the same as physical property. If someone abandons physical property it doesn't disappear, and it can be reclaimed by society. When intellectual property is abandoned it can be lost to society forever. Physical property can also only be possessed by a single owner, whereas intellectual property can be copied without the original owner having the property taken from them. As Thomas Jefferson said, "he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me."

There is also nothing to prevent the original owner of an idea or a work of art from maintaining exclusive right to that idea or a work of art. All he has to do is keep it to himself. However, once he brings it forth and puts it into the public eye then he should have no expectation that others in the public won't expand and capitalize on that idea. It is basic human nature to learn and expand upon the ideas of those who have come before us. This is the way it should be. Ideas should spread freely between individuals.

It was England who first adopted laws that granted exclusive rights to ideas. Other countries then copied England's laws. Should England get paid for coming up with this concept? Or better yet, when England made it against the law for starving peasants to hunt in the King's forest Robin Hood was born. Maybe, just maybe, it's time for a modern day Robin Hood who steals intellectual property from the governments and corporations and gives it back to the people. <-- Sorry, I was on roll and may have taken it a little too far.