Posted by Bill Steele on 04/25/06 18:19

In article <1145906277.461408.220840@g10g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
Elohim@volcanomail.com wrote:

> Steele Wrote: "My proposal to change copyright law is to require that
> writers be
> compensated directly for every public performance, in proportion to the
>
> gate. This would allow a return to the old business model -- before
> recording was invented -- where musicians played and people paid them."
>
>
>
> However then who would own the right to copy and distribute and make
> money from your performance in front of the bus station in OK city?
> Here you are, a starving artist, you write a song. People are throwing
> dollars into your guitar case. That's all you get, a percentage of your
> gate. Meanwhile some guy records it, plays it on a radio station, he
> makes mega bucks on your recording while you starve...see, that's what
> copyrights are about. YOU alone have the right to copy any recording of
> your song and sell it first. Or you can sell those rights. Like the
> Beatles did. They made a small fortune. Later, their buyer, a pedophile
> named Jackson, made a HUGE fortune. And the songs keep on playing so
> someone is always making money, so they are never going to be in public
> domain.

Well, first of all, the instant that guy records the song, even if I
just wrote it this morning, it is covered by copyright. And if the law
is modified as I suggest, I'll get paid every time he performs it live
and from any airplay. Meanwhile, he will not make megabucks from
recordings, because the recording will be available free on KaZaa.
>
> I propose that the artist bears in perpetuity his or her rights to
> record, rerecord and sell his personal property any time.That such
> rights are "God Given" and cannot be sold or given away, only put on
> loan to people, like Disney or Apple or Whomever, who always will owe
> the originating artist (not a corporation or non-producer of the
> original work) some recompense. When the artist dies. BOOM. that's all
> she wrote! No giving it over to the family. No rights given to Disney
> (alone) forever or anyone else. It becomes a part of the Public
> Treasury. And we need to make our artists, writers, comics, musicians,
> etc. National Treasures as well. So that other nations cannot rip them
> off with impunity. In other words this whole copyright thing has to
> come back down to an individual's right to pursue happiness and to make
> a profit from his or her own inventions and creations.

Except for the time limit, that's what copyright is about now. And you
can't remove the time limit without amending the constitution.

[Back to original message]