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Originally Posted by leebase
Yes....I agree that history exists. I’m not describing current laws and I’m not describing historical precedent.
I’m advocating that the concept of intellectual property all by itself is a good thing for society.
I see a reason for limits on patents. There is only one chemical composition that is Aspirin. If you are the first to discover it, you get an x year monopoly. Somebody else would have eventually discovered it....it’s science/medicine.
Not so with fiction. There are endless ways to make up stories.
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You keep saying that there are countless ways of making up stories, yet it's not really true. Many stories are effective because of the shared culture referenced in the story. To a great extent, that is what society gets out of public domain. It's not so much that we get free books, it's that other authors can use those books as a foundation for new stories, i.e. derivative works, without worrying about being sued.
But also, you simply don't make any sort of case about why. Why should the bargain be changed? What good will society as a whole get out of eternal copyright? We got plenty of stories in the US before the change over from 28+28 to life plus 70. Copyright is how we make sure artists get paid, but why should artists get paid forever and no one else? You make the assumption, That copyright should be treated as physical property without justifying the assumption. There are plenty of facts that show that copyright is not the same as physical property. Why should it be treated as physical property.