Re:Greed and the Wright Brothers
by noonespecial on Saturday April 19, 2014 @11:54PM
(#7615786)
It would depend on the protection being nearly free in the short term but becoming very expensive in the longer term. This would allow small upstarts to find out if a market existed and then, if true, capitalize on it and use the profits to fund continued protection as far (and only as far) as the market would bear.
If they failed, the patents could not then be acquired by trolls for pennies where they would then pollute the ecosystem for decades.
As far as copyrights go, this would neatly solve the orphaned work problem with the added benefit of Disney having a serious think about paying a billion dollar tax to the public in order to keep "Steamboat Willie" in the "Disney Vault".
Re:Greed and the Wright Brothers
by nitrogen on Sunday April 20, 2014 @01:12PM
(#7617561)
I still think such a system would need a way to prevent large players from waiting out smaller creators and getting free source material that they currently have to pay big bucks for (e.g. consider J.K. Rowling).
If they failed, the patents could not then be acquired by trolls for pennies where they would then pollute the ecosystem for decades.
As far as copyrights go, this would neatly solve the orphaned work problem with the added benefit of Disney having a serious think about paying a billion dollar tax to the public in order to keep "Steamboat Willie" in the "Disney Vault".