this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2023
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I feel like we need a shakeup to copyright law. If you copyright something and place it for sale, you can't just remove it from sale. And if you do, like in the Zaslav-enshittification, it becomes public domain. Once you create and share something with the world, it isn't really yours anymore. Sure we should enable creators to monetize that for a reasonable amount of time (~20yr or so, or 10yr after death) but deliberately removing creation from being able to legally be seen again is bullshit. If you wanted to keep your shit secret, it shouldn't have been copyrighted and published. /rant
I think we should return to the original copyright laws we had at the beginning of the 20th century. You had to register something to copyright it. If you did, you had a copyright for 19 years with an option to renew at the end of those 19 years. After that, it was public domain.
38 years is more than long enough to profit off of a work.
Yep, imagine if the old laws applied and someone could just create a cheap streaming site with all the stuff that went into the public domain after 20 years. You'd have multiple streaming sites with the same content just competing on service and price instead of what exclusive content they had.
I would definitely think that having a vast PD library available would reduce piracy.
And why the F do we need more than a a year or so after death? Either the estate is raking I'm shitloads or it's not, extra years only helps the most wealthy.
I can see the reasoning behind that, like helping support a spouse and child if the author died young. But if you do the 19+19 thing, when the person died doesn't matter. Just when they created it. It would mean that tons of 1980s movies would be public domain right now. I think that would be just fine.