Re: Copyright & The New World Economic Order

On Mon, 2 Aug 1999, Albert Henderson <NobleStation[_at_]compuserve.com> wrote:
>
> On Sun, 1 Aug 1999, Jeroen Hellingman <jehe[_at_]kabelfoon.nl> wrote:
> >
> > How much is the added value for an investor of 20 years more protection
> > after some 70 years from now? For how many investors would it make the
> > difference? The longer protection terms have mostly been lobbied by a
> > few who have copyrights that still earn and that are about to expire...
> > Even the extremely expensive hollywood productions earn themselves back
> > within five years, or never... All the rest is nice, but not the
> > investors mayor concern.
>
> According to Publishers Weekly the 20-year extension of the U.S. term
> to 70 years to harmonize with the Europeans may be worth $330 million
> to the holders of the Winnie the Pooh copyrights. For writers and
> publishers, that is a powerful encouragement to create modest stories
> that may be timeless.

Not really. First, the odds of hitting it big are miniscule. I can attest that I read Winnie the Pooh when little (then again in Latin in high school), and that my daughter has read it too. How many books can you say that about? Secondly, the possible $330 million is at the end of the term. How many people would work that hard for say a .001% chance at $330 million starting say 75 years from now? You would probably do better with the lottery. Note BTW that Milne and successors have in all probability made quite a bit already. In other words, the $330 million is just gravy, given to descendants of someone who is no longer here to be motivated by it.

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The preceding was not a legal opinion, and is not my employer's.
Original portions Copyright 1999 Bruce E. Hayden,all rights reserved
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Bruce E. Hayden                      bhayden[_at_]acm.org
Phoenix, Arizona                     bhayden[_at_]ieee.org
                                     bhayden[_at_]copatlaw.com