Andrew Lentvorski wrote:
This locks up *everything*. Under what I propsed, the damage that Big
Mouse(tm) inflicts is limited only to its own properties.
-a
And therein lies the rub. The only factor limiting the number of Big
Mouse(tm) properties is Big Mouse(tm) money. The more properties Big
Mouse(tm) owns, the more money Big Mouse(tm) has to
buy/extort/litigate/coerce/steal more properties from Little Flea(tm).
So here is my preferred scheme:
1) Copyright rights are assigned exclusively to creator upon creation
of the work.
2) Copyright cannot be held by any individual who was not a primary
creator of the work. In the case of a collaborative work, each
primary author holds a joint, non-exclusive copyright on the work.
Copyrights may not be held by non-corporeal entities (e.g.
corporations, trusts, government agencies, organizations, etc.).
2) Life of copyright is not to exceed the shorter period of the natural
life of the creator or 125 years. In the case of a work by multiple
authors, the life of the copyright is the shorter period of the life
of the last living author or 125 years.
3) Copyrights are non-renewable, non-assignable, non-inheritable, and
non-transferable. Copyrights cannot be held as collateral, traded,
sold, bartered, or used as currency.
4) A Derivative of, improvement to, addendum to, variation of,
or adaptation of the original copyrighted work implies no extension,
renewal or transfer of the original work, but stands only as an
original work in and of itself, which is granted its own copyright
under the same terms as rules (1-4) above.
5. At the expiration of a copyright due to any of the above conditions,
the work enters into the public domain with the only requirement
being that proper author and date attribution be included with any
use to the work. Once a copyright has entered the public domain, it
cannot again be claimed by any person for any exclusive use.
6. Derivatives of, improvements to, addendum to, variations of,
or adaptations of a work placed into the public domain under
rule (5.) above cannot be copyrighted, but are considered in the
public domain in and of themselves and are subject to the conditions
of rule (5.) above, and must themselves carry author and date
attribution of the original work upon which they were based.
This is basically a highly modified GPL type of use policy with the
addition of a limited exclusive use condition for the original author.
I'm sure I can think of a few other tweaks to this (no doubt a lawyer
could), but I think it's fair the both the author and society.
--
Best Regards,
~DJA.
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