Quote:
Originally Posted by rkomar
The courts cost money. The people who enforce the court decisions cost money. Thus, enforcing copyrights costs money.
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Which, of course, is what government is for and it's why we pay taxes. But, in a civil law suit, the losing side pays the court costs. But where else do you want to apply this? To articles of incorporation? Should they expire also because of the "ongoing costs to government?" This is red herring argument.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rkomar
After some time, most books stop generating sales (or at least enough to make it worth putting up for sale). So, no revenue is generated to tax. However, the copyrights would still be in place and cost money to enforce.
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Okay, this whole sub-thread started because someone said that the great grand-child of an author shouldn't "be able to go to university" on his great-great grandfather's work. Obviously Tolkien's work still has value. So claiming "no revenue involved" is yet another red herring argument here.
But even if it wasn't, what is the cost of filing a copyright and keeping it on record? A copyright is proof of the author's ownership, nothing more. The "expense" of keeping this copyright on record is negligible — and getting a copyright is not free and renewing one is not free. The cost of enforcing the copyright is the responsibility of the author — not the government.