
Birthday Song’s Copyright Leads to a Lawsuit for the Ages - gkoberger
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/nyregion/lawsuit-aims-to-strip-happy-birthday-to-you-of-its-copyright.html
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mtgx
Copyright should be 5 years by default, for free, but you can extend it every
5 years up to 20 years, but you'd have to pay say $1,000 every time. If you
won't extend it, then it goes to public domain by default.

We're living in the _abundance age_ , which also means 90% of the stuff out
there is "crap" and is quickly forgotten even by the authors. If they can't
monetize it in 5 years, and can't afford to pay $1,000, then maybe it's not
worth it, and should go to public domain so it doesn't get abused later. And
who knows, maybe someone picks it up and makes it much better later, which
will benefit the society and culture.

I think some of this is what this document proposes, too:

[http://www.copyrightreform.eu/case-for-copyright-
reform](http://www.copyrightreform.eu/case-for-copyright-reform)

~~~
mapt
A counter-proposal:

Copyright lasts one year without registration.

At the end of that year, a work must be registered and a $100 fee put up to
extend the term to 5 years.

Every five years after that, the registration fee is increased by a factor of
10.

This seems to address most of the problems I have with copyright, beyond the
core conceit of whether it's valuable or not. I really don't understand _how_
the Berne Convention's extremes can benefit a people other than as a hegemonic
trade concession.

~~~
themstheones
This is a pretty good idea. I wonder what properties would make a $1 billion
investment for five years a good investment? Star Wars maybe? That would be at
the 40 year mark.

And I am probably confusing copyright with trademark here. I suppose Disney
could still own the rights for all star wars merchandise and new content even
if they hypothetically lost the rights to A New Hope, due to trademarks, no?
Because A New Hope surely isn't worth $1 billion for five years.

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ChrisNorstrom
Here's what's insane:

Copyright Protect: is free and lasts 100+ years.

Patent Protection: cost $5,000-$10,000 and lasts 20 years.

Personally I think Copyright should last only 50 years. I'm open to a
conversation about why that's fair or unfair. Please feel free to convince me
to increase or decrease that number. I think 50 years is fair enough.

~~~
venomsnake
Copyright should last 5-10 tops. In the current digital world it is more than
enough for monetization and we don't lack creation of artifacts which
copyright was created to spur. So we may tone it down a bit.

~~~
ChrisNorstrom
Only 5-10 years? That's the other end of the extreme. I don't want extremes
here, just something fair. If you made a video game or movie that took 200
million dollars to make you'd only have 5-10 years before it would go into
public domain and others could rip and use all your assets.

Other people could take everything you own and created 5-10 years ago. If you
have a regular 9-5 job at a big corporation you might not care but for content
creators who make content once, then collect payments years down the line
(Music/VideoGames/Films/Authors) that would devastate them.

~~~
caw
I was thinking that copyright should perhaps be limited to some time + a
function of you continuing to create work.

So Disney gets to keep Mickey so long as they keep using Mickey, JK Rowling
keeps Harry Potter so long as she's still writing books and keeping the world
up, and the same with Star Wars. However, if nothing new comes out between
extensions it falls into public domain. That would catch all the books, 1 hit
wonders, orphaned video games (heh, maybe Half Life would be public domain
with the wait for HL3), etc.

Not a fully fleshed out idea (What about after death, if your kids kept up
your bestselling X, or if you released a 10th edition of your horrible book
with "THE END" added), but it's an idea.

~~~
Avenger42
Then you have authors releasing a short story and claiming that's all that's
necessary to keep up the copyright. Mickey appears as a cameo in a Disney film
and he's back in the vault for another 10 years. (Actually, he's still active
in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, so he's likely to never make it into the public
domain.)

~~~
caw
Is this much different than the current system of life + every changing number
when Mickey is going to expire?

This small change wouldn't impact the big corporations, but it would start
letting smaller things fall into public domain. Then, after a while of
acceptance, you do something like limit the number of renewals, make it price
prohibitive to renew more than 2-3 times, or limit transferability.

Or you could go for a big bang change and hope you have a critical mass of
votes.

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tocomment
I've wondered if copyrights could somehow be treated like trademarks in that
if they enter the cultural vernacular you lose the copyright just like if a
trademark becomes a common word.

