Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
With all due respect, a programmer being paid by the hour, or monthly, or whatever his compensation package is, isn't remotely doing the same thing that an author is doing. There's nothing comparable about it. An author is taking on an entrepreneurial risk--going without any pay, generally, for the entirety of that year (or however long), on the gamble that his or her work will pay off. What the author is doing is more akin to what a Bill Gates or a Steve Jobs does, in launching a company (on a smaller scale, unless you're J.K. Rowling). In the normal course of things, it's nothing alike whatsoever.
If a programmer decides to create his own software product, or his own website, and puts his own time and money into doing that for a year, and then launches it, and earns from it--would you think that his "term of rights" for that entrepreneurial risk should be limited? Is everyone offended when entrepreneurs' descendants live comfortably off what they earn?
In the case of an author, what their "product" produces IS what "they produce," to address your business example.
An author who is paid for the work they produce--for example, a journalist collecting a check from a newspaper--is akin to your programmer example. No risk, no reward. Work-for-hire. Each is comfortably collecting their paychecks, that someone ELSE is paying, for which someone ELSE takes the risk. An author who is writing on spec (speculation) is taking exactly the same risk as any other small businessman or entrepreneur, and deserves the same risk-reward ratio as those folks expect. That's why having a bestseller is called "hitting it big," after all.
Someone else takes the risk, gives you a check--then they own what you produce. You take the risk, you go without, or you create the product? Then YOU own what you produce, and any reward, or lack thereof, that comes along with it. That's capitalism 101. Paid employees versus entrepreneurs. Not the same thing at all, and the time it took the latter to create their successful product is unrelated to "how deserving" they are of the rewards.
Hitch
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So an independent contractor, seeking out customers, maybe getting stiffed by them, performing the labor before getting paid, has no entrepreneureal aspect at all? No carrying costs, no risk?
Right, buddy....