Why should an old author be able to be paid for work he did as a young man? I get this year's salary for this year's work, next year I have to work again. Giving the author ten or twenty years to turn his work into cash seems entirely reasonable to me - any more is excessive.
What about someone who sets up a business at 20, sees it do really really well, and sells it at 25 for £100 million? Should the government come along after 20 years and say that he can no longer benefit from that money? You have to work each year to get each year's salary, but not everyone does. A lot of people are living off the fruits of work they did years ago. A lot of people are living off the fruits of the work their great-great-grandfather did.
(I'm not arguing for or against your general point, but I think your analogy has holes.)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Re: intellectual property
Date: 2007-05-16 11:47 am (UTC)What about someone who sets up a business at 20, sees it do really really well, and sells it at 25 for £100 million? Should the government come along after 20 years and say that he can no longer benefit from that money? You have to work each year to get each year's salary, but not everyone does. A lot of people are living off the fruits of work they did years ago. A lot of people are living off the fruits of the work their great-great-grandfather did.
(I'm not arguing for or against your general point, but I think your analogy has holes.)