News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on In 'Sherlock Holmes' Rights Dispute, Conan Doyle Estate Slammed Again. Parent comment

Re:In 'Sherlock Holmes' Rights Dispute, Conan Doyle Estate S... by signal11 on Wednesday August 06, 2014 @07:41AM (#8141965)
> When the author dies, so should the copyright.

But would this not increase the incentive to harm authors? If the author dies, film studios/HBO etc no longer have to pay for movie/TV rights to out-of-copyright work.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:In 'Sherlock Holmes' Rights Dispute, Conan Doyle Estate S... by idlewan on Wednesday August 06, 2014 @08:21AM (#8142069)
It's very interesting to consider the effects.

But why should we link death with the release of copyright? While temptation of assassination is probably reduced with extra-long copyright duration after death of author, it's a lot saner to assign a fixed-duration copyright from the original release date, not from (whole life of author + fixed duration). The problem goes away if you have a fixed duration from the start.

[ Parent | on HN ]