

A Free Market Fix for the Copyright Racket - natex
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-29/a-free-market-fix-for-the-copyright-racket.html

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loarabia
Given other issues floating around maybe rather than go to something as
restrictive as what was proposed at the end of the article take a half step.

Leave much of the law today as is (copyrights can apply to more than the
original copyright law allowed and are automatically in force even without
registering) but change the duration mechanism.

For the first 14 years of the work's existence you get a copyright for free.

For the next 14 years, you can re-register but with a higher but still nominal
fee.

For each year after that, you must re-register and the fee goes up at an
accelerating rate eventually reaching millions per year per copyrighted item.
I'm assuming there would have to be a cap somewhere.

The government gets new revenue, most copyrights are shortened and enter the
public domain more quickly and for the copyrights that are extremely valuable
and still producing value in excess of the ever increasing registration fee,
it will be worthwhile for the holder to pay.

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cynicalkane
I don't like this because the amount an entity will pay to keep copyright is
roughly proportional to how culturally valuable it is. The more Disney will
pay to lock up Mickey Mouse, the more we want the mouse to be free.

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wtvanhest
If there is no cap on the exponential portion eventually Mickey will be too
expensive to protect and he will be free. The result would be the Government
capturing all the value in later years and then the work would be freed
allowing the public to capture the value.

I think the OP's suggestion is the best I have heard so far. It could be a
simple formula like a fee starting at $10/year for each copywrited work after
14 years, then it doubles ever year. By the 24th year you would be looking at
paying just over $5,000, but by the 44th year Disney would be paying
$5Bn/year. Probably not worth keeping the rights on Mickey for $5Bn/year.

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Danieru
Now Government will have yet another source of revenue to optimize. Since
Government hates giving up revenue we could expect entities close to giving up
due to cost to receive exceptions. Anything to keep the money flowing.

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mtgx
If there was a time or an issue that Republicans could stand for and actually
be pro-market as they keep saying they are (in theory), it's this one. They'd
probably get as much support as they usually get from evangelists, which seems
to be their core audience these days, or at least that's how they're acting in
public.

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Kerrick
It's a shame: Republicans are, in general, pro-corporatism. They are not
usually truly for the free market.

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j0j0r0
great... however, a more direct example would be mickey mouse...

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bryanlarsen
Mickey Mouse is also a trademark of Disney. Using Mickey as an example would
confuse the issue.

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habitue
This is important to note every time someone brings up Mickey Mouse. The super
old "steamboat willie" movies would be out of copyright, but Mickey Mouse
would still be a trademark.

In addition, Mickey Mouse is perfectly legal to use in works of parody etc

