Quote:
Originally Posted by Katsunami
I think copyright of publication + 95 or even life + 50 is ridiculous.
There are only a few professions in which the practitioner can keep earning over and over and over for work done only once: writer, musician, and to some extent, software engineer/programmer (somewhat less there, because software needs to be maintained and thus costs work).
I think it's ridiculous that an author/musician can basically create one work, and if it becomes popular and stays popular enough, not only they themselves but generations after them can live off of it.
Most professions don't have a "produce once, earn for a 120 years" option.
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At first glance, copyright law and royalties may look like some kind of lazy thievery to an hourly-wage worker. Let's say you're a Walmart greeter. You have to stand at the front of the store and say "Welcome to Walmart, here is a cart" for hours every day. Oh, the author's life looks like a sweet scam because they get paid for every copy of the book sold.
However, consider that first, unlike your Walmart shift, nobody is paying them for their time to do the work. You get your hourly wage just for being there, even if nobody comes in. The author invests hundreds or thousands of hours in producing the work.
Second, the author only makes money if people like the product and buy it. It would be like if, in your job as a Walmart greeter, you were only paid tips. If customers didn't feel your greeting was to their liking, you'd go home empty handed.
Finally, and this is THE major point: Every copy of the work sold is a separate act of work. Readers are paying, for example, $20 to be entertained by a book. The author's story does the entertaining. Because of the nature of written language, a book allows the author to tell the story and the reader to receive it at different times. Buying a book is, in essence, buying a ticket to a storytelling performance. So, selling 100,000 copies of a book is serving 100,000 (or more, because of multiple readers per copy) customers over time. Surely you expect to be paid for every hour you're at the Walmart. Would it be fair if you were only paid for your first day?
There are certainly valid discussions to be had about how copyright should work, but the idea that somebody should not be compensated for the work that they do that is valued by others is dumb.