Quote:
Originally Posted by llreader
Most civilized countries have estate taxes that kick in above a certain level. There are a number of ways to look at it, but reclaiming that wealth for the "collective" so that other kids can have a chance, instead of making some children rich for no good reason. And the related argumentation, that the wealth built up by the original person was not done in a vacuum, but based on the infrastructure and economy of the country involved, and therefore it should be returned to the community, in part, upon his death. In the same way that copyright involves the return of intellectual property to the public domain after a time, so that people like Walt Disney can create new works mining public domain intellectual property like Snow White and Cinderella.
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Most civilised countries also charge some kind of sales tax, therefore for every sale of his book the public receive money thus reclaiming that wealth for the collective, however once copyright expires the family get nothing.
With that lump sum in the bank that say a big business man has genrated no one comes and takes it away from his family?
why not? if you can justify taking something of value from the great great great grand children of an author why not the great great great grand children of a business man?