Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
Copyright is to ensure that some of the profit from copying goes to the creator for long enough that they are encouraged to create more things.
When copyright expires, any profit remaining to be had from the item can be made by anyone. But the fact that anyone can profit from it reduces the potential for profit considerably, while simultaneously making the item more available. This is the benefit to everyone that makes up for everyone enforcing copyright.
An unlimited copyright imposes a significant burden on everyone for no return.
Every extension to copyright has imposed a significant burden on everyone, with no apparent return at all, even for the creators. (An author will not be paid more for a life+70 copyright than for a life+50 copyright, or even a 56-year copyright.)
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True. Copyright only really has a purpose when the author is still with us and creating more works. After that his/her books can fall into obscurity if they aren't kept in print by someone and if the copyright holder (publisher) doesn't think it will make enough $$ it won't be kept in print. There are many authors represented here (in the ebook section) at MR who I had never heard of before I started to browse the estacks.