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Old 04-02-2009, 01:04 PM   #517
Xenophon
curmudgeon
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Format C: View Post
I do.
If I die my wife won't get a penny other than what I have saved in my lifetime (she earns more than I do, and she won't even have my pension).
So, or every other worker gets the same treatment, or Gershwin loses his one.
Well, the U.S. legal system really doesn't agree with you. Given that the concept of copyright is enshrined in our Constitution -- and given the difficulty of changing said Constitution -- suggesting paying all authors like carpenters is just too far away from the realm of possibility.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Format C: View Post
If authors were paid for their actual work, like carpenters are, that's not a problem at all.
We actually have a system for doing that. It's called "work-for-hire." When that's what happens, the corporation (or person paying for the work) owns the copyright and the potential benefit therefrom; the author gets his or her salary.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Format C: View Post
The per-copy-sold model is the worst I can imagine.
Using your same analogy: is it fair that a Shakira is paid 1000 times a Ludovico Einaudi? Is "Progress" to have tons of Harry Potter wannabes because they sell much better than a new "ulysses"?
That kind of "financial incentive" promotes trash much more than Art!
Come on! A photo poster of a couple of big tits sells more copies than Bresson's Station!
It's pretty easy to argue that Shakira and that poster of a couple of big tits provide more pleasure to more people than do Ludovico Einaudi and Bresson's Station. I certainly don't have a problem with that. And I don't even like Shakira!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Format C: View Post
I think writers have to be paid like carpenters. A minimum hourly wage, and a little bonus if they produce a masterwork.
And never more than 100 times the world's average income (the escess amount coming from hardcopy sales, movie rights, etc.. is used to pay other writers minimum...)

If you want to be rich, establish your Standard Oil and be happy.

I have news for you. There are lots of carpenters who make more than 100 times the world's average income. Certainly lots of plumbers do!

I suspect that you and I are mutually inpursuasible on this topic.

Xenophon
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