On 1/24/2012 6:18 PM, Stewart Gordon wrote:
On 24/01/2012 00:13, Walter Bright wrote:
<snip>
Copyrights expire after 20 years. Renewable for another 20 years for a fee of
$1000/year
per registered copyright.
So your idea is to make it harder for people to keep their works copyrighted?
After 20 years, yes. And I speak as someone who makes a living selling
copyrighted material.
Under your plan, what will happen to copyrighted works that have existed for
years? Will they expire right away if they're 20 or more years old, or remain
under copyright for 20 years from now?
They'd follow the same rules. If they're more than 20 years old, but less than
40, the owner can pay $1000/yr to continue the copyright. Older than 40 years,
then public domain.
And will existing rules (literature expires 70 years after the author's death,
music recordings expire 50 years after creation, etc.) still apply in addition
to this?
No.
