Quote:
Originally Posted by rcentros
So, should grandchildren of business owners be forced to give up their grandfather's business? Tolkien made the bulk of his money (in later years) by writing and selling his books. Rockefeller made a lot of his money selling gas. Why should he be able to pass down his assets to his heirs while Tolkien shouldn't be able to do so? Should business assets go into the public domain, after the death of the company founder, plus 50 years? Why do we undervalue the livelihood of writers?
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Because Rockefeller's heirs are not still selling the exact same oil that Rockefeller sold. They are selling new product that the various companies have come up with. Rockefeller's heirs don't own the concept of selling oil for lighting, which would be the equivalent of Tolkien's heirs owning the back story of Tolkien's universe, rather they own stock in various companies which they can either sell, or get dividends for.
There are two rather different concepts here. First is the original idea of copyright, which is the ability to make copies of a specific work. Tolkien's heirs still get their cut of every copy of LOTR and the Hobbit being sold and they control what companies can produce copies. The second is the rather new idea of controlling to derivative works based on Tolkien's work, which is really the driving motivation of public domain.