|
I'm not a big fan of the Intellectual Property right concept. I prefer to not have a government entity prevent stop me from copying something, but I also understand that there is less insentive for someone to create and share something if anyone could easily copy their creation. So I'm willing to have the government place limits on my right to copy something. However, I believe this limit imposed upon my ability to copy should be limited to a time period long enough for the author to get compensated -- but no more. These perpetual copyrights, and 50 years after an authors death copyrights, are way too long.
Give an author/creator 10 years to make a profit. Then allow the author to extend the copyright for another 10 years, but make them pay a fee for copyright extension. Every 10 years they can pay an extension fee, but the fee should go up dramatically for each 10 year period. So the first extension might cost $1,000 but the 10th would cost $1,000,000. This protects Disney but allows "Ice Cream the Old-Fashioned Way" to go into the public domain.
|