Re: benefits of the public domain and limited copyright terms?

On 05/09/2000, Albert Henderson <noblestation[_at_]compuserve.com> wrote:
>
> On Sat, 6 May 2000, Lance Purple <lpurple[_at_]netcom.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Fri, 5 May 2000, Jon Noring <noring[_at_]netcom.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > On another mailing list a very pointed question was asked, the gist
> > > of the question being "why is the Public Domain necessary -- what's
> > > wrong with perpetual copyright terms?"
> >
> > Because it would likely have stopped Shakespeare, Walt Disney,
> > Andrew Lloyd Weber, and countless other artists from creating
> > their most popular works:
>
> That is assuming they were too lazy to obtain the usual permissions
> where needed and to pay appropriate fees and royalties.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. YOU are assuming that copyright owners will always give permission where there is money to be made. The contrary assumption that Mr. Purple (and other public domain proponents) make is that people will NOT always give permission, even if there is money to be made. The public domain is about freedom to copy and create new works, not about laziness.

There are two other basic disagreements between your position and those of public domain advocates:

(2) Public domain advocates assume that at some some point, heirs become so diffuse that it is difficult, if not impossible, to get permission, even if one assumes (as I do not) that permission will be forthcoming. This is not laziness or greed; it is simply a realistic recognition that the transaction costs of trying to locate heirs will deter the creation of some works.

(3) Public domain advocates assume that the reduced cost of not having to pay royalties is passed on to the public in the form of lower prices, which benefits everyone. You assume that the reduced cost of not having to pay royalties will NOT result in lower prices, but is instead strictly a wealth transfer from copyright owners to publishers. Unlike the previous two points, this can be measured as an empirical matter, so there is little point in repeating the recent debate on this topic.

Tyler T. Ochoa
Associate Professor
Whittier Law School
<tochoa[_at_]law.whittier.edu> Received on Wed May 10 2000 - 22:25:50 GMT