Re:Copyright doesn't need 95 years to get the job done
by musicale on Monday January 03, 2022 @09:00PM
(#29790217)
>I haven’t heard a super convincing argument as to why something I make should ever revert to public domain, especially while I’m alive
Overlong copyright terms lead to what we have now, where digital libraries either ignore copyright law (libgen, scihub), or have the best features of ebooks (easy copying and transmission, access from all regions of the world, unlimited simultaneous readers, etc.) crippled by DRM, or have limited collections of works by living authors, or are locked behind paywalls (Elsevier.)
Copyright law could provide a time-limited monopoly on copying that is a reasonable balance of public benefit with incentives for authors to create additional works, but currently it does not and harms both purposes.
I expect many authors are less concerned with verbatim copies of their works being distributed than for derivative works or adaptations being distributed. Perhaps copyright should be split a bit more finely.
Overlong copyright terms lead to what we have now, where digital libraries either ignore copyright law (libgen, scihub), or have the best features of ebooks (easy copying and transmission, access from all regions of the world, unlimited simultaneous readers, etc.) crippled by DRM, or have limited collections of works by living authors, or are locked behind paywalls (Elsevier.)
Copyright law could provide a time-limited monopoly on copying that is a reasonable balance of public benefit with incentives for authors to create additional works, but currently it does not and harms both purposes.
I expect many authors are less concerned with verbatim copies of their works being distributed than for derivative works or adaptations being distributed. Perhaps copyright should be split a bit more finely.