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Originally Posted by DawnFalcon
But patents held by a company? (Also, what's the practical difference between a patent held by a person and exclusively and irrevocably licensed to the company and one held by the company itself?)
Also, is someone "dead" when they've been on life support for 20 years? If they're cryogenically frozen? Oh look, a can of worms...
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The company angle would have to change. Companies don't create shit. They pay people to create stuff. They can have control over the creation since they paid for it, but true ownership should be tied to the individual(s) who created it. And the patent should only last until they are dead.
Death is death. Being on life support is still alive. Cyrogenically frozen isn't a can of worms, but a silly example--maybe that will have some relevance in the future when it's possible but not currently. So that bridge could be crossed in the future.
But for now, copyrights and patents last at least 5-10 years after death (so people don't stop publishing when they're old, surviving family doesn't stop publishing posthumously etc.) with death being dead and buried, cremated etc.