The Butt Ugly Weblog

Optimal copyright length is 14 years?

An economist has calculate the optimal length of the copyright period, and it appears to be 14 years - the same what it was originally when it was first invented.

I'm not sure whether it's really true for the general case - but I can almost certainly say it's not authors death + 70 years. I'm a big fan of "renewable copyright": the idea that you first get X years automatically (e.g. 14 years, or 28 years, or something fixed), and after that you can register your copyright in the copyright office, for a fee, for another fixed period of time. This allows works that nobody cares about to fall back into public domain after a sane period of time, and it also allows the corporations to renew the stuff they find valuable (solving the Micky Mouse problem). In addition, it would make it always clear who owns the copyright of a particular piece, solving the issues that documentary makers are having.

(Via BB.)