|
That's why I suggesting the idea of a voluntary government buyback. It would clearly separate whose who wanted to keep the copyright, for whatever reason, from those who felt that the copyright was relatively worthless, and was willing to release it for one last cash payment. Strictly voluntary...
Here's a hypothetical example. I'm Joe Hackwriter. Early in my career, such as it was, I wrote pulp romances in the pen name Jane Lustbucket. My best known works were the trilogy - A Litter of Lizards, Looking For a Few Lizards More and The Small, The Big, and The Egglayer. That was in 1966, when I was 25. Now I'm 73, and nothing I write sells. There hasn't been any publishing interest in the Lizard trilogy in decades. But I could now sell it back to the public domain for enough money to pay a year's rent. Hmmm....
|