Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
It would be a tremendous incentive for me if my employer paid me $5 M a year. Alas, I get paid quite a bit less and somehow still find the will and energy to make it in to work every day. Copyright is a tradeoff. I believe that it was put into the Constitution by Ben Franklin, who was the most popular author of his generation by far. The original copy right law gave authors a 14 year copyright that could be renewed another 14 years (28 years total). In US, 28 years (plus 28 year renewal) was the term of copyright until 1976. For some strange reason, authors still seemed to write, even though their great, great grandchildren would not be able to reap the reward.
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True enough. Many don't even try to publish. Still these days many write whether competently or not in the hopes of making the big bucks. Perhaps if copyright were eliminated a lot wouldn't bother and I am not saying that is a bad or a good thing.
I am not saying every author deserves to make a living by writing or even that most even benefit from copyright. I do think that if a book is good enough to stand the test of time and is still selling 50+ years later, I do not begrudge the author or the authors descendants their piddling royalty payments. The author invests time, intelligence and energy in creating intellectual property the same as I invest time, intelligence and energy in acquiring real property. They may not be the same under the law, but the time, intelligence, energy and even luck generally only differ on an individual basis.
Many descendants AFAIK don't bother with royalties hence the orphaned works. I agree orphaned works should be addressed and dealt with, but don't see it as a reason to drastically alter copyright on published works.
My stance is that if a work is still being published and sold it has value that deserves monetary recognition to either the author or their heirs. Perhaps that should define copyright. Of course it would be a big pain in the butt to track down all the possible heirs of Shakespeare and send them each a penny or two a year in royalty checks.
Helen