Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg
Until 1891, US copyright law, under said Constitution, had zero protections for new books by authors lacking American citizenship. So I don't generally see the early American copyright model as a good one.
I think that 14 years, and probably even 28 years, is so short that it would majorly reduce sales of new titles.
Life + 50 seems to me a reasonable compromise, besides having the benefit of greatest consistency with international law. It's long enough not to depress current sales more than a smidgen. Once copyright is long enough for that, there's no justification for it being longer.
When I endorsed the $20 renewal fee, I wasn't thinking about the amount, but the principle that if no one cares enough to renew, the benefit is almost all on the side of letting the title go to public domain. If it was possible to amend the Berne Convention to require renewal, what I'd really want was a renewal fee that just barely covered the administrative cost of an efficiently managed renewal system.
Besides making a payment to fund the renewal process, the copyright holder should also have to certify that the title is still marketed in every country with freedom to read. In the eBook era, that should be no problem. More of a problem is getting international consistency.
|
Yes, $1 or $2 is usually nominal. But not $20.