Quote:
Originally Posted by leebase
The case is - and I repeat - society doesn’t own the fruits of the individuals labor, creativity, effort. Unlike with patents which deal in realms where there are only a limited number of solutions to a problem....fiction has no scarcity.
Society levies taxes to procure revenue to provide services. Whether via income or property tax. So society doesn’t need to take ownership away.
In the case of Disney and other large companies built on intellectual property...their properties have significant value because of ongoing and continuous investment. It’s not what Walt Disney did in making the first Steamboat Willie cartoon in the 30's that makes Mickey Mouse valuable today.
I would gladly concede all economically inactive intellectual properties become public domain...much in the way that Trademarks can become void if not used and defended.
This is not how things are...but how things SHOULD be.
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So how exactly is writing and movie making totally and completely different than every other endeavor where the individual does not own the fruits of their labor forever and a day, but rather gets paid and moves on? Of course, none of the individuals at the Disney corporation actually get the fruits of their labors. Rather, they get paid like everyone else and get nothing from the on going profits that Disney continues to rake in for the work of their employees.
For the most part, prior to author assigned copyright, authors were paid for their work, just like any other craftsman. Author assigned copyright was simply a way of using a particular existing practice (copyright) to encourage writers to write more by taking the monopoly grant from the printer's guide and assigning it to individual writers.