Quote:
Originally Posted by Hellmark
I do believe that copyright should last for the lifetime of a creator (or some comparative span for corporations), to give someone a long time to create more works. I wouldn't mind seeing a small extension after death, so that the author's wishes could be respected in the time after his death the estate can be wrapped up, and if there are still any profits coming in, it could help with the expenses of the author's passing.
As far as your comment about not seeking things out if made public domain, well, that's just you. Also, one of the most common things I've heard of, is people who read stories when they were younger, but now that they're older the books are out of print, the author is long since dead with no clear owner of the copyright, and they're wanting to read those books again. That's a common scenario where people are trying to seek older stories and are hampered by how the copyright system currently is.
The problem is, the way copyright is being used, it would block similar works too. If it were copyrighted still, you'd have issues writing stories about brainwashed lackies, Royalty with a monsterous nature, etc.
Plus in the case of Dracula, you can very apparently see the details from the folklore it was based on. If any of that had been copyrighted, Dracula couldn't have remained as is.
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What if I die young and have small children? My intent SURELY would be to provide for them. Make it PD too early and those kids could end up on government welfare, when in fact, a parent had the means to provide for them...until that parent died...and copyright expired. I really believe that was the original intent of life Plus. It didn't/doesn't necessarily have to be life plus 70 (as that would be most of the adult life of the child) but what a horrific nightmare for a parent to imagine that her books/income would not be used to support her 3 year old daughter after she died.
As for the out-of-print, that is true today, but should largely be a non-issue in the future. There's no reason ebooks can't be around for much longer than out of print.