Quote:
Originally Posted by speakingtohe
Ah I was arguing the exclusivity that you mentioned should not be applied only to copyright if applied at all. Generally you have exclusive rights to your house. Well if we disregard insects and rodents etc.
In some countries, if your property is uninhabited for a period of time, vacation, working out of country, sabbatical etc. squatters have a pretty strong ability to squat, thus negating your exclusive use of your home and squatters can actually gain legal possession of it.
http://www.time.com/time/world/artic...049946,00.html
Modern copyright laws were inacted mainly to protect the rights of authors and publishers (primarily publishers I suspect) upon the invention of the printing press, not to allow people free access to knowledge, but to ensure that there would be new knowledge and entertainment to access.
http://www.historyofcopyright.org/
And like HarryT I feel that authors works deserve the same rights as anyone else, whether it be a home they bought or built, a business or anything else acquired honestly.
Helen |
Do you have a perpetual right to something you lease? That is the correct analogy. Because the law grants you a
lease on all the rights to exploit a particular copyright.
The government leases other things, like off-shore drilling leases. Those are usually tied to a timer and are extended for as long as minerals are produced,
if they are produced. Otherwise they end at the end of the timer. But they are not permanent ownership.
Copyright holders are lucky. They don't have to pay a percentage of their gross to the government for the right to have their lease. Drillers do. There are grazing leases on public land. You may (or may not) pay a $60 one time fees for a formal copyright. You are not being billed for every sale.
Note, there's nothing in Berne to stop taxation of copyrights...