Quote:
Originally Posted by crich70
Having a limit on the copyright period would also stimulate the author's to write more, quicker I would think. I mean if you have 5 books say that are making money now (8 yrs in) but will be out of copyright in another 2 yrs you know that you have to write something new to keep the income flowing in.
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There is the law of unintended consequences. Would shorter copyright terms mean that publishing and being an author become more unprofitable? Would people be more willing to wait for something to go into PD rather than pay for it now?
At one time, the vast majority of books made sold most of what they were going to sell within the first several months of release. This was because of the limited shelf space in book stores. After a few months, any left got toss and the cover sent to the publisher for refund to make room for the next set of new books. I suspect that ebooks and Amazon changed that dynamics. Also, consider series. Would authors write series if they knew that by the time they finish the series that book 1 would be in PD?
I personally like the idea of having a short period of automatic copyright protection followed by a much longer period where the copyright had to be renewed for a small fee on a yearly basis which is used to maintain a copyright database. I would also support the idea that to maintain a copyright after the short automatic period, the author has to provide an electronic copy of the work in a given format or formats. Once the work goes into PD, anyone can get a copy of that electronic copy. I would even throw in that all works of a given author would be renewed on the anniversary of the author's first work, so the author wouldn't have to remember a bunch of renewal dates.
Of course, the real issue is that once someone has something, they are going to fight to keep it and there isn't really anyone fighting to take it from them. That's the political issue.