Thread by @scalzi

1. So, as a follow-up to yesterday's thread and comments about copyrights and lengths thereof, some additional thoughts about the practical and theoretical issues revolving copyrights, their length and copyrightable intellectual property in general. Ready? Here we go:

2. To begin, the pipe dream of a 30-year-term of copyright really is just that, a pipe dream. 179 countries including the US are signatories to the Berne Convention, a treaty tightly wound into the World Trade Organization. Here's the actual text:

en.wikisource.org/wiki/Conventio…

3. Basically, the Berne Convention and its terms the "floor" for copyrights; you can't offer less protection than it offers and be a signatory. A copyright term of 30 years-and-out is, uhh, *less.* It is not seriously going to be considered any time soon. So, it's Life+50, folks.

4. Now, and of course, you may rail, if your heart desires, about the injustice of this particular term of copyright; I myself would trim it back a bit to life+25. But unless you convince 179 national signatories to amend a highly standardized and *functional enough* treaty, meh.

5. Beyond that very practical issue, there's the matter that you need to make a compelling moral, ethical AND economic argument to copyright holders that they should accede to your revised-but-certainly-less-than-current copyright term. Spoiler: Good luck with that!

6. The moral/ethical case is ironically the easiest to make: think of the public good! And indeed the public domain is a vital good, which should be celebrated and protected -- no copyright should run forever. It should be tied to the benefit of the creator, then to the public.

7. Where you run into trouble is arguing to a creator that *their* copyright should be *less* than the term of their life (plus a little bit for family). It's difficult enough to make money as a creator; arguing that tap should be stoppered in old age, is, well. *Unconvincing.*

8. Likewise, limiting that term limits a creator's ability to earn from their work in less effable ways. If there's a 30-year term of copyright and my work is at year 25, selling a movie/tv option is likely harder, not only because production takes a long time (trust me)...

9. ...but also because after a certain point, it would make sense to just wait out the copyright and exclude the originator entirely. A too-short copyright term has an even *shorter* economic shelf-life than the term, basically. Why on earth would creators agree to that?

10. (Not to mention that if creators *do* want to offer their creations in a substantively freer fashion to the public before their copyright term expires, they already have options via Creative Commons and estate planning; for those folks, it's a somewhat solved problem.)

11. But wait, you say, copyright terms used to be shorter! Yes! They were! And at one time they didn't exist at all! But that's not *now.* And *now* is what you have to work with. And *now,* it would be you who has to make a compelling argument to lower those term lengths.

12. Let me come at it from another direction: You want things in the public domain quicker. Okay! But what do I get for agreeing to this, that *replaces* my ability to control and benefit from my creations? Are you offering UBI? Universal health care? A robust safety net?

13. If the answer to the above questions is "no," then fuck you, pal, I got no reason to play your silly game. I live in the US of fucking A, where we have shitty wages, shitty health care and a truly shitty safety net. My creations are how I eat, pay bills, and care for family.

14. "But you can just write other things!" Sure. OR, I can write other things AND still control the things I've written before. "But society benefits from public domain!" Sure! AND they'll benefit even more if I can live comfortably to create more things to go into PD later.

15. Want to make a robustly moral AND economic argument for shorter copyright terms? You MUST start with building a society that does not punish creators for having those shorter terms. Until and unless you do, your words won't convince creators whose lives depend on copyrights.

16. In sum: Practically, copyright terms are settled (and slightly too long), but even if they weren't, we have not (in the US at least) created a society where shorter copyright terms make sense for many creators. Let's create that society! I'd be happy to revisit this then.

17. Thanks for your attention. And now, as usual, a cat picture to close out the thread. Here's Zeus, all casual.