Dragaera

Artificial release dates and online publishing

David Dyer-Bennet dd-b at dd-b.net
Fri Dec 13 01:43:06 PST 2002

Matthew Hunter <matthew at infodancer.org> writes:

> On Fri, Dec 13, 2002 at 02:50:48AM -0600, David Dyer-Bennet <dd-b at dd-b.net> wrote:
> > Discussions over the years have pointed out some other things -- such
> > as that if copyright doesn't extend significantly past death, creators
> > who are old will have a difficult time negotiating decent terms on new
> > works.  "We can't pay you much for this, because you'll probably die
> > in the next 5 years, and all we're buying from you is the license to
> > use your copyright; if that ends in 5 years, it's not worth much to
> > us." 
> > 
> > This leaves me thinking that "life + 25" is a vaguely reasonable place
> > to end up.  It's by no means a "precisely right" point. 
> 
> I get to this same point by the following reasoning:
> 
> An author needs copyright on his works to make money.  So long as 
> he is alive he has some right to revenue from those works.  In 
> the event that he dies, his works should retain protection 
> sufficient that their proceeds can be used to the benefit of his 
> children, up until their majority and assumed independent means.
> 
> So, life + enough time for a child born the day before to reach 
> adulthood.  I'd be happy with life + 18 or life + 21.  Life + 25 
> is enough for a college education.

At the graduate level.  And for *most* people they die rather after
their children are born. 

I was thinking a bit about children, and 25 is partly picked to take
*really good* care of them.  (And there's nothing to prevent an author
>from saving and passing on a *cash* estate to his heirs, either.)
-- 
David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b at dd-b.net  /  http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/
 John Dyer-Bennet 1915-2002 Memorial Site http://john.dyer-bennet.net
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