Re: actuaries and copyright extension

Jayne Sebby writes:

>

I disagree. I suspect a very large number of professional writers create much of their writing primarily for financial reward. Especially journalists and technical writers. I don't think you make a good journalist unless you are creative but much of a journalist's writing is hack work because somebody has to write the obituary on the latest dead politician.

Sure the vast majority of works created are not created for financial reasons but a large NUMBER are and litigation is usually about those works because other works are typically not worth suing over.

> Also most creators (except possibly authors and muscians)
> sell their creations, including copyright, to others

I suspect the purchasers of those copyrights will be very interested in the copyright term even at the time of creation. Of course they are still interested in extending the lifetime of their investment as the end of the term approaches but their interest at the time of creation can effect the decision whether or not to create a work.

> or create under a "work for hire" scenario, so any copyright term
> is irrelevant.

In which case the body which arranges for the creation of the work (the hirer) is even more likely to be motivated primarily by financial incentives. If the incentive was not there, many of those works would not be created. To the extent that copyright term affects the financial incentive authors, original owners (by the work for hire doctrine), and subsequent purchasers can be very interested in what it is. The argument is not that financial incentive is irrelevant but that beyond some upper limit, copyright term becomes irrelevant to financial incentive at the time of creation.

Tim Arnold-Moore, LL.B. (Melb)      | Multimedia Database Systems, CITRI  |
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