New Paper Argues for Reasonable Reduction in Copyright

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by ApK

I can't quite tell if you're being facetious throughout this thread. You do realize you're stating the facts exactly backwards, right?
(I see the winky, but I'm not certain if it applies to the whole message or just the real estate suggestion....)

I'm not being facetious and the winky applies just to the real estate bit.

[arjaybe]

Originally Posted by RHWright

many good words, plus . . . I don't think copyright is intended to support "capitalism" or protect a creator's "property" rights. Copyright is an incentive to contribute to the creativity and innovation of society. The incentive is a limited period of control and exclusivity. The limited period should not be made unlimited and the incentive (in terms of copyright length) should not outweigh the benefit to the community that it is intended to promote.

Just my 2 cents.

The voice of reason. Worth much more than two cents, in my opinion.

rjb

[Prestidigitweeze]

And here I thought you were introducing us to a new kind of paper that was able to argue reasonably -- perhaps with the very words one happened to be writing on its zesty ivory epidermis. How disappointing!

[tubemonkey]

Monkey selfies - copyright free

[TuxGirl]

I came up with an idea a while back that I'm pretty fond of for copyright law. The initial copyright term is short -- 20 years or so. Then, it may be renewed every 5 years for a $100 fee each time indefinitely. This would be combined with a publicly searchable database where you could learn the copyright status of any work.

This has the advantage of protecting the interests of Disney (no more mickey mouse laws) while releasing orphan works to the public domain quickly.

There could be a provision saying that if the creator lives outside the US, the initial copyright term would extend to the initial copyright term in the creator's home country.

[pdurrant]

Given how widespread the Berne convention is, I don't see any prospect of reducing copyright below the minimum specified in that convention, of lifetime+50 years.

But just now I'd be delighted if we could get it back to that length!