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Comment on If copyright on a work expired immediately after death, would be that a bad or good idea?

Anything to shorten it sounds like a good to me.

My idea has been that copyright isn’t automatic. It needs to be registered, and renewed every 2 to 5 years. And each renewal costs twice what the last one did. Start off super cheep maybe even free. Then $5 for the first renewal, doubling each time. Eventually it becomes too expensive to bother; Even for billion dollar franchises.

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ohulancutash@feddit.uk ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
So a system that removes all the power from individual authors and puts it firmly in the hands of big corporations with deepest pockets? Nah.

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- Steve@communick.news ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  How’s it do that?
  
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  - ohulancutash@feddit.uk ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Because authors will run out of renewal money much quicker than conglomerates.
    
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    Steve@communick.news ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Not when they’re profiting off the copyrighted work.
    Regardless of being owned by a person or corp. A specific copyright will reach a point where it’s not bringing in enough money to justify the expense of renewal. Corps aren’t in the habit of holding onto things that aren’t profitable. People tend to do so longer than corps.
    
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TootSweet@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

Anything to shorten it sounds good to me.

So say we all.

In the U.S., recently, GOP Senator Josh Hawley, one of the speakers who helped incite the January 6th insurrection, introduced a bill to make the term of Copyright 28 years with optionally one renewal for an additional 28 years.

And, it’s so weird to me that I could agree with him on anything really.

Mind you, he introduced that bill in an effort to punish Disney for being too “woke”, but I’d let the MAGA nuts use such a bill as an opportunity to crow for a few minutes about their victory over strong woman protagonists or whatever if it got us more reasonable copyright terms. (And honestly that’s too long, but it’s a hell of a lot better than the bullshit we have now.)

Also, fuck Sonny Bono.

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- vsg@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Steamboat Willie was released almost a hundred years ago but only got into public domain last year. 95 years of copyright is overkill.
  
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  - spankmonkey@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    10 years plus an option for a 10 year extension is plenty.
    
    Copyright should only apply to other individuals and companies trying to collect income (not just profit, making any money) from copying as well. The whole original idea about protecting the creator from being easily copied was a decent idea, and really only makes sense as useful to society in that context.
    
    And yes, I am in favor of every work of art being in the public domain within two decades. That is plenty of time to benefit from exclusivity, they can create additional art or do some kind of promotional work or something else to keep making money off the fact that they created something that deserved to be exclusive.
    
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AmidFuror@fedia.io ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Those fees won't pay for the cost of registering all these copyrights. Currently the government doesn't need to get involved until there's a suit, and then they get court fees. Everybody registering their first 2 to 5 years of copyright would be a massive burden.

Also, at every 5 years you're only up to a few hundred bucks at 40 years. Definitely needs to be on the lower side.

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- Steve@communick.news ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Registering doesn’t need to cost much. It could be largely automated.
  And the government will get plenty of money later on from the big ticket copyrights.
  And the government isn’t supposed to be profitable in itself any way. So that doesn’t matter much.
  
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