Setting copyright to expire after a number of years or months or minutes relies on the assumption that all content has the same lifespan. However, we know a corporation like Disney continues to profit massively from its back catalog of intellectual property. Meanwhile, the next viral music video sensation is a flash in the pan in terms of continuing profitability. And relevance.
Today's copyright terms are too long and much content is irrelevant and forgotten long before the copyright terms have expired. Worse, media that is massively relevant but not profitable is locked up in copyrights and not available. For example, film from the civil rights era. That has long lasting cultural significance and yet much of it is rotting in vaults racing against time for the copyright to expire before the film becomes unusable. But its profitability is very limited, pretty much done after the news reports aired. Copyright terms based on profit would place this material in the public domain, available for documentarians to explore now instead losing our history and picking through the degraded scraps of cellulose decades from now.
An added benefit is that this scheme would end the media companies' messed up accounting practices. If the copyright term is contingent on continued profitability, they have to show profit to renew the copyright. One more bonus, it's taxable now. If they continue their standard practice of cooking the books to avoid showing taxable profits then their copyright expires and their box office smash hit is now public domain.
So that's my modest proposal. Tie copyright terms not to the calendar but to their accounting.
I, too, am a Satan-worshiping antisocial malcontent with an unhealthy dice fetish.
And the plural of dice is DIE!1!! Die, die, die! No, I have no idea where I was going with that.
Anyway, these days I play first-person shooters on a Linux powered gaming PC. So not only am I a horrifically violent mass-murderer, I'm also a dangerous haxx0r since my computer doesn't run Micro$oft Windoze.
Re: Spelling counts...You know, because first impressions and such...
It's really more homophone choice than spelling. Merriam-Webster defines it as "standing out so as to be readily perceived; conspicuous." So it could still be correct in that sentence because, to my mind, warfare would be a rather conspicuous activity.
I'd actually reverse that. End 'politician' as a job series; make it a civic responsibility like jury duty. No salary and no pension, only a travel stipend. When they've served their term of office they go back to their day job.
But we'll also apply Acquisition Ethics rules like the DoD has (or a meaningful version of the same). In the DoD, if you had anything to do with a company's success, like being granted (or denied) a contract, you or your family can't work for them for 5 years. You're also forced off the contract approval board if a family member already works for a company bidding on the contract. There's some other stuff as well, like caps on gifts from individual sources and from all sources per year, but that's the gist of it.
So now that there's no more career politicians and the revolving door is locked, a lot of the problems just vanish.
On the post: Digital Music News Explains To Apple What Fair Use Is, Reposts Contract That Apple Tried To DMCA Away
Re: Framing COMPLETELY IGNORES "Who's Screwing You Worse: iTunes Radio, or Pandora..."!!!
two fish
red fish
go away blue
On the post: Labels Use Questionable Ruling On Pre-1972 Recordings To Sue United Airlines For Streaming In Flight Music
Re: Re: There is a simple way to resolve this...
Copyright expires when the profits dry up.
Setting copyright to expire after a number of years or months or minutes relies on the assumption that all content has the same lifespan. However, we know a corporation like Disney continues to profit massively from its back catalog of intellectual property. Meanwhile, the next viral music video sensation is a flash in the pan in terms of continuing profitability. And relevance.
Today's copyright terms are too long and much content is irrelevant and forgotten long before the copyright terms have expired. Worse, media that is massively relevant but not profitable is locked up in copyrights and not available. For example, film from the civil rights era. That has long lasting cultural significance and yet much of it is rotting in vaults racing against time for the copyright to expire before the film becomes unusable. But its profitability is very limited, pretty much done after the news reports aired. Copyright terms based on profit would place this material in the public domain, available for documentarians to explore now instead losing our history and picking through the degraded scraps of cellulose decades from now.
An added benefit is that this scheme would end the media companies' messed up accounting practices. If the copyright term is contingent on continued profitability, they have to show profit to renew the copyright. One more bonus, it's taxable now. If they continue their standard practice of cooking the books to avoid showing taxable profits then their copyright expires and their box office smash hit is now public domain.
So that's my modest proposal. Tie copyright terms not to the calendar but to their accounting.
On the post: And, Right On Time, Here Comes The Blame Video Games Train For The Navy Yard Shooter
Re: Re: Scapegoat du jour
And the plural of dice is DIE!1!! Die, die, die! No, I have no idea where I was going with that.
Anyway, these days I play first-person shooters on a Linux powered gaming PC. So not only am I a horrifically violent mass-murderer, I'm also a dangerous haxx0r since my computer doesn't run Micro$oft Windoze.
On the post: Dumb Speeding Criminal Decides To Post Manhattan Speed Run Video Online
Re:
On the post: Embrace The Hate: One ICE Employee's Quest For A Race War
Re: Spelling counts...You know, because first impressions and such...
On the post: Kevin Spacey: Give Users Control, What They Want, When They Want It, At A Fair Price, And Stop Worrying About Piracy
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Oh, shift from "compete with free" to "at a reasonable price"!
On the post: 50% Of 'Retiring' Senators Now Become Lobbyists, Up From 3% A Few Decades Ago
Re:
But we'll also apply Acquisition Ethics rules like the DoD has (or a meaningful version of the same). In the DoD, if you had anything to do with a company's success, like being granted (or denied) a contract, you or your family can't work for them for 5 years. You're also forced off the contract approval board if a family member already works for a company bidding on the contract. There's some other stuff as well, like caps on gifts from individual sources and from all sources per year, but that's the gist of it.
So now that there's no more career politicians and the revolving door is locked, a lot of the problems just vanish.
On the post: Vocal NSA Critic Has Dinner With NSA Boss, Explains To Him That Abuses Are Inevitable
Re:
On the post: Worst Woman In The World Burns Dog Alive, Is Caught After Bragging About It On Facebook
Re: Hell? Really?
On the post: The Tide In Congress Has Shifted Against NSA Surveillance
Re: Re: Re: Re: Edward Snowden is a traitor?
On the post: Boston Radio Station Shutters Online Contest To Meet Taylor Swift Because Of 4Chan Shenanigans
Re: Re:
On the post: Why Does Rep. Mike Rogers Always Mock The Internet And Its Users?
Re: re post #1
New feature request, Mike?
On the post: DOJ: Now That We've Been Embarrassed For Spying On Journalists, We'll Be A Little More Careful
Re: Hmmm...
On the post: Sending A Dick Pic As Your Response To A Lawsuit: Not An Effective Legal Strategy
On the post: Pilots Want To Know Why The DHS/CBP Are Searching Their Planes Without Warrants
Re: Re: Re:
On the post: DailyDirt: Automated English Translations Are Fun
someone had to do it
On the post: IBM Researcher Feeds Watson Supercomputer The 'Urban Dictionary'; Very Quickly Regrets It
Re: Re: God DAMN it....
On the post: BitTorrent Book Promotion Drives 40% Of Downloaders To Book's Amazon Page
Re:
On the post: That Was Fast: Hollywood Already Browbeat The Republicans Into Retracting Report On Copyright Reform
Re: Re:
On the post: House Republicans: Copyright Law Destroys Markets; It's Time For Real Reform
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