Quote:
Originally Posted by rcentros
I've never been able to quite figure this out. If a man creates something that makes people money (has value), why shouldn't he be able to pass that valuable property on to his heirs? If a man creates a profitable corporation, should his family be forced to give it away fifty years after his death?
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So should all the author's works that are in the PD be back under copyright? That would be quite an undertaking since some books are well over 1000 yrs old. Not to mention that having works go out of copyright makes them more available as more publishers can then publish the work than just that one that originally published it. And those works no doubt have stimulated the creativity of those who wrote new books after them. Take "Dracula" as an example. How many new works about vampires have there been since then? Not just books either but radio dramatizations, movies, etc. Ask yourself "How many of those works would have been written had Dracula not gone out of copyright?"