Quote:
Originally Posted by ApK
It does apply to other talents, that's why we have patents as well as copyright, but this is a book forum, and we've been asked more than once in this thread to focus on books.
It doesn't apply to land because no one creates land.
No need for incentives to get people to make more land.
What's there is there and people need to live on it.
Some might argue no one should own land, but that's a different topic.
If one day people learn to develop planets to live on, there may very well be a law that says the terraformers get some sort of incentive, and then the land is made available for the greater good.
And the greater good is not faceless. Just look in a mirror. Or at a child.
ApK
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The Congress shall have Power ... To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.
Patent and copyright are clearly temporary, as opposed to land. We can debate how long copyright should be, but eternal copyright would require a constitutional amendment. The benefits aren't faceless. Patents are where we can see this more clearly. We wouldn't have the technology we have today if patents were eternal, because our technology is based on inventions that have entered the public domain after their exclusivity has expired.