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Boing Boing has the scoop on SF author Mark Halprin rattling the chains very much Mark Twain style for not only an extension of copyright, but in fact perpetual copyright. To quote from his NYT opinion piece:

Were I tomorrow to write the great American novel (again?), 70 years after my death the rights to it, though taxed at inheritance, would be stripped from my children and grandchildren. To the claim that this provision strikes malefactors of great wealth, one might ask, first, where the heirs of Sylvia Plath¹ berth their 200-foot yachts. And, second, why, when such a stiff penalty is not applied to the owners of Rockefeller Center or Wal-Mart, it is brought to bear against legions of harmless drudges who, other than a handful of literary plutocrats (manufacturers, really), are destined by the nature of things to be no more financially secure than a seal in the Central Park Zoo.

Mark is falling into the trap that many of the zealots of copyright often do — confusing intellectual property with real property. Looked at in this light, his argument doesn’t hold water. In fact, the rights of intellectual property holders are far more stringent than that of owners of real property. I’ll illustrate using various analogies from Mark’s post.

• Rockefeller Center & Wal-Mart - Actually, nothing is stopping anyone from copying the exact business plan of either entity. In fact, many try. While the names of either business are protected, that’s a trademark issue and not copyright issue. If you want to do everything they do and try and beat them at their own game — go for it. Nothing² is stopping you.

• Automobile manufacturers - Automakers patent the mechanics of their cars, and those patents run out in much less time than the current US copyright statutes. Some manunfacturers have also put special protection on aspects of their brand (Porsche is notorious for protecting its “silhouette”), but this again is more of a trademark issue than one of copyright.
• Farmers (he says “…drew its living from the land”) - Farmers have the least amount of protection. Take a drive across the plains sometimes. One field after another planted at roughly the same time, using in some cases identical seeds, creating a monocrop which all matures and is ready for harvest at the same time. Talk about your copy infringements…

His argument just doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. Yes, copyright should be enforced and defended. And even though ideas can and do continue on for years after the person who created those ideas has passed on, it’s ludicrous to try and attempt to assign perpetual financial benefit to those ideas. The heirs of Sam Walton will collect their check from Wal-Mart only as long as it remains a viable competitor in the marketplace and remains a going concern. The children of a farmer will only reap benefit from the land for as long as it remains fertile and they are willing to work it or pay for it to be worked. What other situation allows heirs to do nothing more than sit back and relax for 70 years after the death of the originator, counting the money it still brings in? I’ll grant you that trust funds and nest eggs do serve such a purpose, but without careful reinvesting, they to will run their course.

No, the holes in the argument are too great to even start contemplating the sheer magnitude of attempting to enforce such lunacy. Get me past those, then we can have fun on figuring how how much I owe to Shakespeare — or how many of his decedents would be lining up to receive their fair share!

¹ - I had to look up this link to get the reference. I think he’s trying to say that Slvia’s heirs are deserved of large boats, though I’m not sure, having been unfamiliar with her or her work prior to this mention. Color me undereducated.

² - Some things, like store layouts and inventory management systems, are in fact protected by copyright. Understood.

This entry was posted by Evo on Sunday, May 20th, 2007 at 6:24 pm and is filed under Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.