Re: actuaries and copyright extension

At 1:16 PM 4/16/96 +0000, Paul Heald wrote:
>
> Should we extend copyright protection for 20 more years? The
> basis of a "yes" response must be grounded on the notion that the
> extra twenty years would provide an increased present incentive for
> creation.

Why is that true? One might as well say that increasing the minimum wage must be grounded in the notion that the increase will encourage more people to get jobs.

> Any actuary will tell you that given the current length the
> protection, an extra 20 years will provide no added incentive.
>
> Let's assume current protection (life of author plus 50) results
> in an average 80-year income stream derived from exploitation of the
> copyrighted work. This potential stream of income will assuredly
> stimulate creativity. Will extending the length of the stream
> stimulate more creativity? NOPE. Just call anyone who sells
> annuities and ask them how much it would cost to buy annuity (income
> stream) which pays, let's say $1000 per month for 80 years. Then ask
> how much it would cost to add 20 more years. You will be shocked at
> how close the two prices are (within a couple of dollars). In
> other words, a 100-year income stream is worth only an insignificant
> bit more than an 80-year income stream. No author is going to
> produce a single extra work if we offer him or her an essentially
> worthless (in terms of present value--and that's all that counts for
> the purposes of predicting the decision to create a new work) bonus.

Why do I suspect that Prof. Heald would recoil at the application of Chicago School economic theory to, for example, privacy rights.

> So, what's the 20-year extension all about? Imposing 20 more
> years of monopoly costs on consumers without any countervailing
> public benefit. In some circles this is called "SUBSIDY."

I thought that a subsidy was the dedication of a public asset for private benefit, while the dedication of a private asset to public use was, in other circles, called something else.

John Noble
<jnoble[_at_]dgs.dgsys.com> Received on Wed Apr 17 1996 - 19:52:37 GMT