Quote:
Originally Posted by Bilbo1967
Loads of people get paid for a fortunate bloodline, some of them even become peers of the realm or kings and queens etc... but what can you do about it? We can't surely suggest that any estate left on a person's death reverts to the state can we?
I for one would like to leave my children a little to get them started in life. Now, I'm not likely to be in the Tolkein/Rowling bracket (unless the market for memoirs by short, fat, bald software testers really takes off) but, even so, I'd be pretty cheesed off if anything I do manage to scrape together is denied to my children when I'm gone.
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Don't get me wrong, I'm not arguing that you shouldn't be able to leave something behind to your children, that would be cruel and pointless in my eyes. What I'm suggesting is that copyright shouldn't be that 'something' and if it is, then it shouldn't last so long. This work (barring the editing and work that his son has done, all of which is laudable and should be rewarded) should have entered the Public Domain to enrich culture a long time ago. Personal inheritence like a house or money cannot enrich the culture we live in (unless the house is of some cultural significance).