At 10:31 AM -0600 11/25/07, David Dyer-Bennet wrote:
(In my personal opinion, life + 70 is grossly excessive; in
particular, lots of work that's still in copyright, you can't find
the owner for, so it's essentially taken out of the marketplace.
Only major corporate properties and "best-sellers" can you routinely
find the rights owner for anywhere near that long after the death of
the artist. And the uncertainty of the "life +" part makes it very
hard to tell when something can be used without finding the rights
holder.)
And for the other side, in my personal opinion copyright should never
expire, like property ownership, it should be subject to all the
vagaries of property managment. Why do you want to use something
that belongs to someone else without recompense?
Since when do we value the ability to accumulate money more than the
ability to create music, poetry, prose, art, photography? And why
should money be more transferable through the generations than the
results of our creative energies?
If people wish to use my creative energies and their results they can
pay a fee, which they can negotiate with me or my heirs. Why should
they be able to just use it without honoring its value? They can't
just walk into my house when I'm gone and take up residence, or drive
my car off the lot when I'm gone.
The whole reason copyright seems so onerous is because creators have
succumbed to the pressures of licensing schemes perpetrated by
obnoxious recreators like Disney, not to mention the publishing
industry as a whole. Those people know how valuable that stuff is
and force work-for-hire contracts, or outright purchase contracts on
unwitting creators. If the creators all insisted on the actual value
of their creations they would not be so ripped off and perhaps they
would be forming licensing organizations to manage their contracts.
Unfortunately that is not happening and every fool who fills up flikr
with their cute pix is contributing to the commoditization of their
creative efforts. Check the contracts you agree to by clicking that
button on those sites. They all lay claim to reuse and often to
license use of your deposits without any payments to you, and
generally without your even knowing.
--
Emily L. Ferguson
mailto:elf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
508-563-6822
New England landscapes, wooden boats and races
http://www.landsedgephoto.com
http://e-and-s.instaproofs.com/
