Since we're talking music, I'd probably want a hybrid. This for passive protection, but say auto-extension free of charge if the creator still trades on it. So Aerosmith who continues to do performances of their work would be able to say they're actively protecting it (and when that stops, the clock starts against the previously described mechanism) whereas Led Zeppelin, or whoever owns the rights to their works, would be in this already and paying to retain protections (if they so choose).
Hey, this could even be a method of artists reacquiring rights to their works from labels: if an artist performs songs from their works 20 years ago and the label isn't interested in paying for this protection scheme, it can revert back to the artist until they decide to stop actively protecting the work. It gets dicey with two parties having rights to it, but structurally it would probably be akin to how if you pay tax on a dollar and give me the remainder, I should then still pay taxes on what I received from you, regardless of the fact you had paid taxes on it already.
Re:Can Beethoven send takedown requests?
by chrismorgan on Friday August 31, 2018 @08:50PM
(#17889493)
Nah, keep it simple. The twentieth year is only up to $380, which is still chicken feed. Don’t add unnecessary complexity: make it simple enough that any layman can understand it completely.
Re:Can Beethoven send takedown requests?
by giancarlostoro on Friday August 31, 2018 @07:55AM
(#17884766)
Ah yes I love that, Disney keeps their rat and we all get more sane copyright.
Re:Can Beethoven send takedown requests?
by chrismorgan on Friday August 31, 2018 @08:08AM
(#17884817)
I don’t think Disney would keep their rodent. Calculate the sum, and by about eighty years, $10 × 1.5 ⁶⁹ is some $14 trillion, so they’d have handily paid off the US national debt by then. Another fifteen years, to get back to the beginning of the sordid affair, would be mildly ruinous.
Re:Can Beethoven send takedown requests?
by jaxtellerSoA on Friday August 31, 2018 @08:58AM
(#17885145)
>so they’d have handily paid off the US national debt by then.
You did it! You found the solution to the national debt! Lets implement his right away!
Re:Can Beethoven send takedown requests?
by canhascodez on Friday August 31, 2018 @06:23PM
(#17888965)
I don't think that it makes sense to allow people to monopolize content indefinitely, nor do I think that it is appropriate to charge individuals for a copyright. The accounting involved in this scheme is also not going to make anyone happy; a flat n-year copyright term is much easier than an algorithm.
Ten years of free protection, then costing $10 × 1.5 ⁿ ⁻ ¹ for each subsequent year. Year 10 costs $0, year 20 about $380, year 30 about $22,000, year 40 about $1,300,000, year 50 almost $75,000,000—and few fifty-year-old things will be worth $75,000,000 per year and growing to retain copyright to.