Anybody else out there think that copyright laws should be more like patent laws or perhaps even more unrestricted? Have you ever heard of the Mickey Mouse Curve? Do you know what Fair Use is and have you ever tried to actually make something under a Fair Use exception? Even if you have expertise in all of these I recommend this video:
Even as the owner of several copyrights I sure do wish things would turn public domain after only 14 years. It would be awesome all around. Crony capitalism sees to it that this cannot be the case. As a real fans of true free market capitalism we should all be sick.
I see Copyrights similar to property rights. I wouldn’t want someone to have free access to land after I had lived on it for 14 years. I understand that because it is intellectual property there is grey area, it’s not tangible so you can still have it at the same time that someone else uses it. Notwithstanding, I disagree that it would be awesome all around. My opinion is that copyrights would expire upon the death of the author. Since it is intellectual property and the intellect of the author ceases at death (speaking temporally) that seems fair.
Do you then see patent rights as property rights as well, since they took the intellect of the inventor to exist? Do you then believe that patents should be extended beyond 20 years to the lifetime of the inventor?
It seems to follow that that would be the case. I have never understood the disparity between patent law and copyright law. Government favors artists over tinkers? This is really my personal opinion and not all properties are the same. A play for example has royalties that have to be payed for each performance no matter who attends. But I can listen to a song as many times as I want and only pay for the cd once. If I have a student who wants to perform a song from a musical they have to buy the sheet music and then secure permission from ASCAP and pay necessary royalties. But if I want to perform a song by ben harper I just have to learn it. I think it represents preferential treatment to the written word over other media. In the end, I know that I would be seriously torqued if someone performed a play that I had written without my permission and without paying me, but I would be honored if someone learned a song I wrote and performed it publicly, as long as they mentioned that I wrote it, even if I never gave permission. So, am I a hypocrite? Probably. I should ask Mike about this. He studied copyright law.
I wrote this immediately after listening to Big Wreck’s new album on Grooveshark for free. So…yeah. I’m a big fat Hypocrite.
I liked it by the way.