I think that is the whole "patented pending" sort of thing. What I mean is they don't start your patent expiry after you actually have your product on the shelves. If you take too long too bad. Not sure why copyright things like books should be any different. Value is most definitely lost over time "Who Let the Dogs Out" was relevant for ~3 months, you miss it too bad. Similarly, though I guess the free market would discount things appropriately, most books are only relevant for a short period of time. Even with fiction who wants to read the "new" detective fiction book featuring a crime that happened in the latest model of a Chevy Bel Air? Most books won't end up being great classics if they didn't come out than the next book on the shelf would get a buy instead bathroom/plane reading isn't that picky (and you should see my mother go through romantic trash books, 1-2 a day she doesn't care who wrote what she'll read them all).

Its even worst than that with some photographers they keep the copyright for themselves not just so they can charge you to print additional copies but so they can use it for advertisement, sell them to stock image houses etc. The next time you buy a picture frame you could end up with a picture from your wedding already in the frame :)

For a patent you don't get grace so why should you for copyright? If you come up with a great idea and spend 20 yrs raising the money and building the factory that is your problem but come up with a new jingle? Take your sweet time finding the perfect label to sign with and wait for Christmas before you launch it, no problem. There is even more expiry on a lot of copyright stuff anyways though especially non-fiction and software. Word 98 anyone? ... Anyone? How many people are reading Borland C++ books, or books about the dotcom bust? A lot of books start smelling like month old cabbage quite quickly they either got to publish it or let it go. This is probably why a lot of books get advances upfront because few top notch people are going to bother spending 6 months to right a book about the latest flavor of OS X only to have a couple month window to try to get published sell it before the next version is getting hyped.

The whole point in patents and I think copyrights should be the same way is to stimulate innovation in the sciences (I guess in the case of a lot of copyright it would cultural innovation). Anyways a big argument for shorter copyright term IMHO is its effect on both the original creators and the people that would innovate on top of it. Given enough money from their original hits (I read in Business Week this week that the Platters I think it was still rake in 65k (probably not for them though :)) just from Pandora royalities. Some of these (I think in the case of radio) it only goes to the song writer, for cable and internet it goes to everyone but still regardless 65k (probably at least 3X more if you count all sources) a year for something you did 50+ years ago why would you bother doing new stuff. You can be like the old rock bands that are always on tour and their last 10 albums were greatests hits + 1 new Christmas carol.

You need to protect things enough that people have an incentive to create them and than no more. I say use it or lose it clause: copyrights 10yrs unless you are still producing content (same industry with similar distribution/sales numbers no limited release garage tracks released in eastern Siberia when your original releases were distributed world wide) then you get another 10 years. If your telling us you need the protection to keep creating you better keep creating or you lose your existing gravy train so someone else that will innovate on it can give it a try.

So how would that work in practice? Would a movie go public domain once every actor, writer, assistant to the assistant lead grip etc with a credit on the film is dead? Would they pick one keep person say the song writer or the director? The length of copyright is rediculous though I admit. Often the original company, musicians etc aren't even around anymore but the company that bought the rights 2 levels down claims it is essential to protect their "property" to keep the creative process (which they didn't have any involvement with) rewarding. Like natives weren't trading shells to here the next village over shaman chant the latest great epic back in the day without the big corporate structure managing the process.

Except since the copyright expired anyone could do anything with the originals. The only thing lost is the potential additions/bug fixes that the new company does. This is why I like BSD much better I think it is freer/better for society: somethings are boring and add a lot of value (but not to the same people that have the skills to make them). Why shouldn't you be able to start with something that someone has decided to make open source and still be able to protect your "secret sauce"? Making open source viral only means open source hill have a harder time making its way into things that need a for profit motive to be created in the first place.

That they were going to pump crowded train air directly into the office. Nothing else would quite keep the cubicle monkeys in their place quite like letting them know that free heat is worth more than lack of BO :)

Mah, getting full scenes particularly if you are looking for a particular scene can be hard. You might find it then a couple months later look for it and it has been DMCA'd out of existence. Why waste another 10 min searching only to be disappointed when you could just save the thing in the first place? Don't need to save everything but a few for the slow web days never hurts (until it does ... but then you can't really call it a slow day right?).

If you think the average John has an emotional connection to the girl he rents by the hour you're kidding yourself. Prostitution laws exist because:

1) It is hard to regulate/government to get its fair cut

and, probably more importantly:

2) Religious views/the fantasy that sex has to involve a deep emotional connection must likely only possible via marriage is so ingrained in the ca 1700 legal systems of many countries.

Perhaps it is because they are more than the average person likely to be married to a porn star with a huge member and endurance to last for a feature length film in a threesome.

I wonder how much of overall happiness is just celebrity/money factor? Take say a famous software developer worth ~1-5M which is my rough guess of a very successful adult stars networth: who's happier?

I love it when HR (presumably) writes the specs for a tech job. Something like: "We need a UNIX sys admin that can handle our DB2 farm as well as a Solaris hosted SAN etc. Must have strong MS Word skills." What am I writing essays or keeping the servers running? I think what it ends up being is the HR person is reasonably good at Office so figures any computer person must be a Office God to be properly qualified.

Good point and people buying in this case would be driving about twice as much drunk as the people just driving one way from the pub. A pub is more likely to take your keys and get/have conveniently located taxis than a random grocery store, vending machine or beer store depending on how socialist alcohol is in your country.

But far more accidental shooting injuries perhaps.

I don't think short term car companies would go bankrupt because the military industry/national pride will make companies subsidize the automotive industry as much as needed. Heck look how much the aerospace industry has been subsidized by most countries even when they've been even less profitable than car companies over the years. Both industries if you factor in the bailouts and tax subsidizes over the years I'd be surprised if they show much of a profit. They've amassed a massive book value but actual money returned to shareholders less money that come from government ... very little if any they exist because they stroke the egos and equip the military's of their host nations. Not that they aren't necessary just they aren't good businesses. A fantastic business shouldn't need tax incentives or bailouts to exist. These do every 5 years or so.

Not to mention liability issues: using standards and getting exploited anyways is much different than trying to roll your own and being the only one vulnerable to the attack ... "the buck stops ... hopefully somewhere else".