Sales-based copyright?

[the_s_guy]

I was thinking about copyright, and how every time it's mentioned on the usual sites there's a score of people who have their own ideas on how to reform it. X years for this, Y years for that, payment-based, time-based, something-else-based.

Well, how about this: sales-based, max 20 years.

Comments

[navigatorsghost]

You know, I don't know if I would want that or not. On the one hand, badfic authors would be unstoppable. On the other hand, commercial pressure might actually DESTROY THEM instead of letting them wander around the internet unchecked.

Hmm.

[forsythferret]

Well, Batman, Superman, Gone with the Wind, etc still wouldn't be public domain. The individual movies or stories might be, but most eveything marketable is trademarked. So while you could republish the old stories and things, new ones they'd have control over. So nobody could make new Star Trek stories, but the old ones could be distributed free.

That's why copyright law isn't even ABOUT Mickey et al. It's about control of the huge archives of other "stuff", that the companies are just pretty much sitting on. Especially in regards to music and movies, but also books. And all the orphaned works where the companies that owned the copyright went out of business, and now who knows where it is.

[dvandom]

And, more importantly, while an old Superman story might no longer be under copyright, you wouldn't be able to SELL it as a Superman story without violating trademark. You'd have to put something generic like "Super-Action Stories!" on the cover.