Quote:
Originally Posted by GatorB
Well everyone else that work at REAL jobs get paid ONCE. So if you got paid over and over again for 50 years you should consider yourself lucky. Seriously just because someone writews a hit song when they are 20 they shouldn't have to work EVER again? What make them so fucking special? I've never gotten this attitude.
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This is the standard argument I hear all the time and it is bullshit. First off, the constitution does say for the limited time, but it does not define that amount. Does this mean 10 years, 20 years, 100 years? Limited as compared to what? I think 50-70 years is fair or even creating some kind of a system where a person owns the sole copyright for a period of time then after that it is free for those who want to use it for education/scientific purposes, but those who want to use it for profit still have to deal with the copyright owner.
But back to your argument about getting paid over and over again for working once. It can't be compared to a normal job. Let's look at McDonalds as an example. If you work on the cook line you don't get to make one big mac and get paid for life for it. Why? Because you didn't invent it. You are just hired to build it. The guy who created the Big Mac actually owned 28 McDonalds franchises. He started selling it in a few of them and it did well enough that he sold it in all 28. It took him 2 years to convince the McDonalds corporate honchos to sell it nationwide. He doesn't get a royalty off of the sale of the Big Mac, but their nationwide advertising did help him sell more. So he invented the Big Mac once and sold it over and over for years in his restaurants, getting paid over and over again and again for the same thing. Is that wrong?
Now how does that apply to a song or an album? This month the band Pearl Jam is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of their album Ten. If someone goes to the store and buys a CD of their album or buys it from iTunes should the band not get a royalty on it or should all of that money now go to apple or whoever manufactured the CD? Just because they wrote and recorded it 20 years ago does not mean that should have to let others "have their turn" profiting from it. If someone wants to pay for a copy of the album, the band should get a royalty.
If you want to be afforded that same privilege go out and create something that people will want to buy for decades.