On 11/21/06, Stewart Stremler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Think of copyright law -- if we can avoid the Sonny Bono corruption case -- as providing a system where authors can deposit their works into the public domain directly, but with a countdown clock. Abolishing copyright (law) sets the countdown clock to 0. Disney wants to set the clock to forever. I bet that most folks (here) think a *reasonable* solution is to set the clock between those two extremes.
The clock should be set negative. Authors should have to pay a fee to publish new books. The fee will ensure that only deserving authors are published. This new crop of authors will care more about their message than about the crass material urge to make money. If the public should tire of reading Pastor Thompson's plan to save America, then publishers can always strip their stock of old books and put new covers on with different titles; that's essentially current practice. My reading list is too long already. Musicians should have to pay a fee for releasing new music. Think of it as an earworm tax. If they are going to be so irresponsible as to release a song that we will have to hear five times in one hour on the "Listen While You Work" soft rock station, then they should be paying us--not vice versa. Holders of copyrights on cartoon characters should pay a per-use tax for each instantiation of their character on sale in a retail store. Tax is doubled for food items that are typically eaten by adults, but are imprinted with images of children's cartoon characters. Please note that the tax is per image, not per item; a cereal box with an array of six characters would incur six times the tax. Also note that the tax is on any item for sale, not for any item sold. If we have to look at it, you have to pay. If there are objections, funds raised by this tax will be earmarked for a special cause to which no red-blooded American could object without risking his or her chances of reelection. Said cause should probably involve children (as long as it does not bring them into direct contact with Congressmembers). --Rachel -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
