Quote:
Originally Posted by Format C:
If I inherit a business, I have to be able to keep it profitable, or it will die.
If I inherit a house, I have to keep it in good shape, or it will lose its market value.
If I inherit a flock of sheeps, I have to feed them, or they will die.
If I inherit money, I have to invest it, or it will lose its value.
But if my grandfather wrote "happy birthday" I'd be a millionaire without having to work one single day of my life. Thanks to what is described as an "incentive to produce more".
I'm sorry, but it's a revenue from an advantageous position definitely unfair and contrary to every liberal principle of free market and capitalism. And I have no moral issues against the ones who "pirate" books by long dead authors.
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I agree. Which is why I am currently figuring out the best way to have my owned IP released into the public domain upon my death, if not before. Granted, the stuff that I actually retain the rights to can probably be represented by a jar of pennies at this point (my most valuable work up to now was work-for-hire, so I don't retain those rights), but that's irrelevant. This isn't some sort of moral stand, it simply comes down to the fact that copyright protection gives me the right to control my work. If I'm dead, I'm no longer in control of anything. It's not like passing on control of a business, not at all.
If I'm lucky enough to make a ton of money from my work while I'm alive, and assuming I haven't spent it all, then whatever is left will be passed on according to my wishes. That is sufficient. To go beyond that seems, to me, to stretch the intent of copyright too much.