Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben Thornton
I was surprised at the level of support for the income of dead people. Two thirds didn't check this as a fair reason to take a copy. Perhaps we should make up some bumper stickers that say "Illegal copying of dead authors' works is a grave crime".
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Very witty, sir!
I didn't check this because, for me, it depends on the lifetime of the author to some extent. I could support "50 years or life of the author, whichever is longer", but take, for example, Jack Kerouac, who died very young. I think his estate deserves the proceeds of his work (he didn't have kids that I know of, but he could have). I don't think the children of authors deserve the right to enjoy the proceeds from their parent's works in perpetuity, but the family deserves to get a reasonable amount of royalties, more or less equivalent to what a longer-lived author could have earned and used to raise them / leave a modest inheritance. (As a matter of general compassion, I would think that orphans would have more needs than children of long-lived authors, but that is kind of a fiddly way to look at making laws).
So no, I don't support blanket cessation of copyright upon the death of the author, not in the least because the Literary Mafia would be out there snuffing good writers to get all their books for free. Innocent bystanders could be harmed.