Quote:
Originally Posted by nekokami
I personally feel that author's life + 75 years for copyright protection is highly unreasonable.
|
A minor correction - it's life + 70 years, not life + 75.
Tell me, if you started a business manufacturing widgets, do you think it unreasonable that you should be allowed to pass on your widget-making business to your descendents as a part of your estate? Would you say that 70 years after your death all rights to that business should be forcibly taken away from your descendents, and that they should no longer be able to gain any profit from it?
I've always been slightly curious why it is that people feel that copyright protection should be somehow "different" from protection for "physical" entities (like widget-making factories). Writing is just as much "real work" as manufacturing widgets - why should one not be able to carry on earning income from such a thing after the death of the originator as one can with any other type of business?