Post #2093668

2026-04-22 16:05 UTC

It's not even an issue of "orphaned works." *Every* work becomes Public Domain eventually; that's the point of it. In fact (according to originalist American sensibilities, at least) the *entire point* of copyright law is "to promote the progress of science and the useful arts" (i.e., to enrich the Public Domain) to begin with! Allowing works to be copyrighted (essentially, borrowed back from the Public Domain temporarily so the creator can profit, thus incentivizing the creation of works) is merely a means to that end, not some sort of moral entitlement.

Replies (1)

@captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 2026-04-22 20:46

Copyright and patent are a compromise. Society is iterative. Every work of art or technology is significantly based on prior work. So if you go to the extremes, where "I intented it, it is mine forever and passed to my children" society stalls as technoligarchs never license their patents. If you go full blyatski and outlaw personal ownership, you get Soviet Russia, a nation whose contribution to global culture has been a few ballets, some long depressing books and precisely one video game, because nobody is given incentive or even opportunity to create anything, so they don't. Give us a full copy of your work, enough information to make a full copy of it. This will be held in trust by the government. We will give you full, exclusive right to monetize your invention for a couple decades, and the copy stored with the government is the stake in your claim, the proof you need to win your lawsuit. After those couple decades are over, the idea becomes public property. Our inventors get to make a living, society gets to progress. Copyright has gone cancerous, with terms lengthened far beyond a human lifetime to benefit major corporations and not individual creators. We need to fix that.

Open ##2093669