You've all had some very interesting answers for my last post so here is a question for you, how do you think about copyright in general and should it exist?
Copyright should exist but not the forever bullshit that Disney made it in the 20th century.
An artist should have the right to copyright their work for a reasonable time to be able to profit from it. Say 25 years, after that is becomes public domaine.
Copyright should not be transferable nor inheritable.
Copyright should not be transferable nor inheritable.
Personally I think it's reasonable for it to be inheritable as long as we're talking about the relatively short timeframe that copyright was originally supposed to last. The prototypical example is the poor artist who creates a much-loved and successful work shortly before death; should their partner not be entitled to live off the proceeds of that?
Personally, my preference would be for 20 years, full stop. But I think a reasonable compromise position would be 20 years or the lifetime of the author, whichever is longer. Corporate-owned works and works-for-hire only get 20 years.
Why should I inherit, but not someone else? Why should rich people inherit lots, the poor nothing? Where I live, the median age to inherit is 59. Think about it, how is that useful for society?
You can counteract this with a strict timeframe like 20 or 25 years. If I create something and die a year later, my copyright transfers to whomever and they can hold it for 19 more years. Seems fair all around.
Yeah sure. What about only for family (except if you specifically denies it, and then it would go to the state or go free).
Edit: but why though? If I die tomorrow, my kids won't get a dime from the work I'm no longer doing for the next 20 years, even if I spent lots of time studying etc. I mean, it's not simple.
If you're 59 years old, maybe you should have planned ahead a bit.
Also, nothing stops them helping you get a good start.
If I lived in my parents house Today and they died, first of all I'd have to share the heritage with 3 other siblings, so no the house isn't magically mine, then again, that country isn't some savage country and I would not be "thrown" out in the streets to live in the gutter.
Otherwise yes, why shall a 59 yo have the right to hoard that wealth? Why shouldn't there be at least a very strong incentive to spread that wealth to their say 20 yo kids instead?
Why should dead people have rights that supersede those of living people? I'm all for allowing people to decide who gets their personal belongings, but I'm opposed to anything that could be considered generational wealth, because generational wealth implies generational poverty. I want societal wealth.
Generational wealth is easily tackled by an inheritance tax. If my rights and living wishes as a dead person don't matter with regard to my property, why should some random stranger be entitled to it either?
Who said anything about random strangers? That would just be weird. I'm suggesting something more like a 100% inheritance tax due assets beyond a certain limit.
Public domain literally means "random strangers." I don't see why my child (or whoever else I delegate) shouldn't be able to control the works that I make before I pass. If they did continue my works with full control, then any half-finished book or movie or game or other piece of art would torture them with legal battles and little reward. Banning inheritable copyright is a death sentence for half-finished media.
Why "hoard" it? Why not give it to your kids when they are young, and thus helping them, instead of having the possibility to keep it and give it to your 59 yo child(ren)?
I get what you're saying, but today a minority inherits billions, many/most inherit when they're over fifty years old.
I mean if you have kids, of course they should have it all to help them out (with some upper limit in the hundreds of thousands IMO but that's discussable ofc) but do tell me why the vast majority of old-timers should be the ones benefit from inheritance?