Comment by visarga
1 day ago
Copyright kills works when rights cannot be negotiated, usually because the rights holder is not to be found, but in this case because the situation is just "complicated".
1 day ago
Copyright kills works when rights cannot be negotiated, usually because the rights holder is not to be found, but in this case because the situation is just "complicated".
When Microsoft was first looking to do a remaster of Goldeneye from N64, even they couldn't manage the legal trouble of that one.
Microsoft had the original development team, Nintendo had the software and Activision had the James Bond License. Microsoft was willing to develop it for both Xbox 360 and Wii but they simply couldn't get the rights between all three straightened out.
If those three, companies that are no strangers to handling legal issues cannot figure out, it doesn't look good for smaller titles like this.
But they did? Goldeneye for the Wii was released?
I've long thought copyright should only apply if the work is available for sale, or they are actively preparing another printing so they can sell it again in the near future.
Then there would be digital stores where old works go to die. Which might be better than now if price was reasonable and support good. But could easily be expensive, unsupported, and goes after pirates.
Authors already have problems with getting their books back when out of print. Ebooks make it worse cause they can stay in print with low effort.
I like idea of copyright with short span, like 10 years, and then have to register and renew for every subsequent decade. That would give registry of owners who are serious about work. Would never see public domain movies, but there are lots of obscure works that would be public domain.
> But could easily be expensive, unsupported, and goes after pirates.
nothing stops that from happening even now, tho
Copyrights should have a similar schedule to patents. The first period of coverage is no-cost but subsequent renewals increase in price, perpetual copyright should be financially ruinous but copyright should exist so a creator of a work can profit off it for a reasonable duration.
It's one thing when a work disappears because no one owns it or no one cares but it's even more frustrating when the rights do exist, yet the legal spaghetti around them is so tangled that nobody can or will do anything