Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward
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...
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Your analogy doesn't work. The correct analogy would be if the company being granted the drilling lease actually put the oil there in the first place. The author created the resource, not nature or society. Without the author the book wouldn't exist, and even under copyright a book still benefits society. So the least society can do is protect the author's interests.