LogFAQs > #956959921

Zareth posted...

Waiting for Zeus to say that this is the worst idea in the history of existence

There's plenty of room for argument, but I'd be much more in favour of that than the flat "it becomes public domain after 75 years" thing that happens now (though it's gradually being made more lenient largely because of pressure from Disney, thanks to many of their IP's having broken the 75-year mark). Companies that are still actively using an intellectual property should not lose the rights to it, no matter how old it is. IP's that are not being actively used, on the other hand, should become public domain. It should be very easy to qualify for "actively using" a property, and some nuance would be needed to account for minor characters within a franchise that don't see much use (though such characters aren't likely to be that profitable to snipe, and because they're public domain, the original creator could still use them at will), but the bottom line is that I'd like to see everything ever created either remain available for purchase from the creator or be formally characterized as abandonware and made available for free.

Ultimately, the goal is to maximize the potential for preserving art. IP holders hoarding their works and not letting anyone have them ever is flagrantly against that.

On a similar note, schematics for car parts and other similar items should also become public domain once the manufacturer stops producing them. There's no excuse for obsolescence in a world where 3D printing exists; that concept exists purely to satisfy the greed of corporations and I therefore see no reason to humour it.

---

This is my signature. It exists to keep people from skipping the last line of my posts.