[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Good Old Neon

How? How has our culture suffered as a result of other people’s works not being free? I’m not trying to be a pain in the arse, but it’s one of those frequently made statements that really cannot be qualified – imo.

Sure, why not? How are you, or society in general, harmed by some now sort of obscure author continuing to profit from his or her work 60 years after publication? The work is available for sale, in libraries at no charge, at used books stores, etc – it’s not as if you wont have access to it until the copyright runs out.

well, i actually went into a lot more detail in my post number 441 of this thread about your first paragraph. as to the second, DaleDe has replied what i would have said, precisely ; that in fact, the majority of copyright works are NOT available at all, because they go quickly out of print, are not profitable enough (to the publishers) to justify a reprint, and are not available (very hard to find or even impossible) otherwise. does your public library have an edition of every single copyright work currently available ? does your local used book store ? even online some out of print but in copyright works can be incredibly hard to find and often exorbitantly priced. i was looking for years for a book i loved when a was a child ; i saw one copy (of a children's book !!!) on AbeBooks for over 40$. i finally did get it in an ebay auction with a lot of luck, for an amount i could reasonably pay, but as i said it took me years looking for it and i only found it because i was determined. someone who hadn't heard of it will likely never discover it at all, because they won't spend years looking for it, and it will eventually become completely forgotten.

and by the way, the used copy which i eventually was able to buy didn't profit the author *or* the publisher at all, since it was bought used from an individual.

Originally Posted by Format C:

So do writers, in my country. They have pension, health, schools, and everything like every other citizen.
And they pay taxes, too.

Pension is a total different thing than eternal copyright. And the lack of a Welfare Policy in some countries is not a valid excuse for it.



But, if it's the purpose of copyright, Italian works should not be kept under copyright for such a long time...
Zelda, do French writers have pension and health like other workers have?

i don't know how the authors statute works exactly here but i imagine they are like other artists ; they pay charges into a fund (as i do) which covers health insurance and pension. and everybody pays taxes, as well, which also covers that.

Originally Posted by HarryT

But in effect that is what royalty income is too - income paid later which the writer has already "earned" by writing the book, composing the music, or whatever. Deferred payment for work already done. Very like a pension.

the difference being that i am paid once, a specific amount for the work i do, and i must pay for my pension out of that fixed sum ; i don't continue to earn more and more beyond that no matter how many people view the website i create.

Originally Posted by zerospinboson

Consider the fact (that I cannot back up atm) that 30% of all proverbs or idiomatic expressions in the English language come either from the King James Version of the Bible, or shakespeare.
Imagine you could never talk about "taking a pound of flesh" anymore. The (overrated) movie "seven pounds" with W. Smith would instantly be gone. (nothing lost there, you might argue.)
Similarly for Romeo and Juliet: Tchaikovsky wouldn't have been allowed to write his works, Wagner wouldn't have been allowed to write Tristan & Isolde, Bartók wouldn't have been allowed to create his folk-inspired music, and neither would Mozart or Bach, etc. Nobody would've referenced Dante, or Cervantes. Those insipid Disney cartoons wouldn't have had the classical-music-lite background music (Tom & Jerry chasing eachother etc),
Unless, of course, they had paid royalties to the **AA.

Originally Posted by Moejoe

Lest we forget that Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare was lifted almost piecemeal from an earlier piece entitled Mariotto and Gianozza, which in turn was influenced by earlier stories.

exactly the point of the public domain, and the progressive enrichment of our cultural heritage, which abusive copyright thwarts.