Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
So, if you build a house, the government should take it away from you after 28 years? If you start a business, the government should take it away from you after 28 years? If you buy shares in a company, those shares should disappear after 28 years?
Why should copyright be different?  |
So whenever you buy a loaf of bread you keep sending money to the baker's heirs for 70 years, right?
Nobody's saying that government should take away something from you. After 28 years you are still the author and nobody can say otherwise. So nobody is taking nothing yours away from you.
Your house does not expire because it's actually yours.
If you've got an hangar full of printed books, they're not taken away from you as soon as their copyright expires, because they're actually yours. And if you want, you can freely sell them.
And when copyright of the books you wrote expires (which is long after your death), your heirs are nor prevented to make money from them.
They just have to compete with others having the same right. Which is what is generally called "free market".
So, nobody is taking anything away.