Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Sock It To 'Em, Princess Leia (a rant)
The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will
slip through your fingers. --Princess Leia
Ya ever notice in the funny pages, every once in awhile a couple-three strips will have similar punchlines? I noticed that today checking blogs, only the punchlines weren't funny.
Over at No rules. Just right. frequent flyer Brenda Coulter encourages authors and publishers to lighten up about used books. (Author/editor Terry Whalin posted last week about used books, too.)
Northern neighbor Jordon Cooper, expressed similar sentiments toward the music industry.
Face it, some people are going to help themselves to a free ride. Some people are going to go to the library or a friend's house and borrow books, CDs, DVDs, soda pop, hairspray, whatever. People are going to fast-forward through commercials or score some pretzels during station identification. Such is life. Let it go.
Most money is made within the first year or two. If it takes a hundred-plus years to turn a profit, was it worth making in the first place? (A lot of stuff that does turn a profit in short order isn't worth making in the first place, but that's beside the point.)
I know it's not likely to happen, but I think shortening the copyright period would help solve the problem. Fourteen to twenty-eight years, like the Framers of the Constitution established. One-and-a-half to three decades and you don't have to worry any more. Or rather, you can worry about something else that's still under copyright.
You'll still have takers and moochers and cadgers, but you'll also have more good will. Abstainers and boycotters will come back to the table with money in hand. Material that has fallen into the public domain can still be sold (I'd be in favor of allowing publishers and studios to conspire to respect each other's material and avoid outright predation) -- include new (w/ 14-28 year copyright) content to counter outright bootlegging.
I hope to be published some day. If I'm a one-hit wonder, I'm probably still going to have to find a job inside a decade. If Phil is still sweating over unsold secondary rights when I've been dead for fifty years, I'm going to be sorely disappointed and will seriously consider haunting him. If Hollywood waits twenty-nine years to start working on a screenplay to avoid paying for the film rights, well I guess that'll save 'em a few clams. But I'd rather some young film student who fell in love with my obscure scribblings be able to take it on as a class project. If she's cute, maybe I'll haunt her instead (and then Dina can haunt me haunting her and we'll make a parade).
It all comes back to Princess Leia. The more they squeeze, the more people lose sympathy and respect for them (I've avoided mentioing the MPAA's lame "I'm a gaffer, won't you please think about my children" infopreviews; don't get me started). The more it all slips away.
An open hand could bring them back, but that's not what Empires are known for.
slip through your fingers. --Princess Leia
Ya ever notice in the funny pages, every once in awhile a couple-three strips will have similar punchlines? I noticed that today checking blogs, only the punchlines weren't funny.
Over at No rules. Just right. frequent flyer Brenda Coulter encourages authors and publishers to lighten up about used books. (Author/editor Terry Whalin posted last week about used books, too.)
Northern neighbor Jordon Cooper, expressed similar sentiments toward the music industry.
Face it, some people are going to help themselves to a free ride. Some people are going to go to the library or a friend's house and borrow books, CDs, DVDs, soda pop, hairspray, whatever. People are going to fast-forward through commercials or score some pretzels during station identification. Such is life. Let it go.
Most money is made within the first year or two. If it takes a hundred-plus years to turn a profit, was it worth making in the first place? (A lot of stuff that does turn a profit in short order isn't worth making in the first place, but that's beside the point.)
I know it's not likely to happen, but I think shortening the copyright period would help solve the problem. Fourteen to twenty-eight years, like the Framers of the Constitution established. One-and-a-half to three decades and you don't have to worry any more. Or rather, you can worry about something else that's still under copyright.
You'll still have takers and moochers and cadgers, but you'll also have more good will. Abstainers and boycotters will come back to the table with money in hand. Material that has fallen into the public domain can still be sold (I'd be in favor of allowing publishers and studios to conspire to respect each other's material and avoid outright predation) -- include new (w/ 14-28 year copyright) content to counter outright bootlegging.
I hope to be published some day. If I'm a one-hit wonder, I'm probably still going to have to find a job inside a decade. If Phil is still sweating over unsold secondary rights when I've been dead for fifty years, I'm going to be sorely disappointed and will seriously consider haunting him. If Hollywood waits twenty-nine years to start working on a screenplay to avoid paying for the film rights, well I guess that'll save 'em a few clams. But I'd rather some young film student who fell in love with my obscure scribblings be able to take it on as a class project. If she's cute, maybe I'll haunt her instead (and then Dina can haunt me haunting her and we'll make a parade).
It all comes back to Princess Leia. The more they squeeze, the more people lose sympathy and respect for them (I've avoided mentioing the MPAA's lame "I'm a gaffer, won't you please think about my children" infopreviews; don't get me started). The more it all slips away.
An open hand could bring them back, but that's not what Empires are known for.
Mikesell
1 Snarky Remarks:
Brenda Coulter, at 11:15 AM
Well, I guess it shows that I've been gone for a week. Terry Whalin is one of my regular reads, and I missed his post about used books. I'll have to cruise on over there.