> IMO copyright for creative works should last a year, maybe two or three, but no more. The most income something generates is usually when it just gets released.

Errrrrr. No. Not in my experience in music copyright.

A whole bunch of musical works for a specific "group" currently earn waaaaaaay more in copyright royalties than they used to 60 years ago (I shall neither confirm neither deny the name of the band due to the many lawyers they have).

Then there's the musicians who make way more on their works being used in television/film five years after the initial release.

Of course there's the entire library/background music industry, where a random television producer can choose some five year old sting for their hit show. Also see previous point.

Not to mention when a musician samples an old track, accurately credits them in the royalty share (props to you folks) and it turns out the song is a massive hit.

Plus the many myriad of other weird and wonderful things that happen in the imperfect, non narrow thing we call the world.

> This is the only way to make copyright mostly work, and make people respect it. Right now it's so long it could as well never expire.

Most businesses/companies tend to go with the current system (begrudgingly or not) or they get taken to court.

The law is on the copyright holder's side. There is inherent value behind these "works" which society has deemed important enough to require copyright to become law. I can disagree with a law as much as I want, but I'm sure as shit gonna toe the line when the police are walking past.

Hence why YouTube gets cagey about copyright. They don't wanna be sued and go through the whole GEMA takedowns/potential fines/potential jail time thing again [0]. They have a lot more to lose than in 2012.

On a more personal note -- people can choose whether or not they respect copyright. I buy all my music. All of it. I respect musicians and want them to be fairly paid for the valuable work they do for our culture, society and for myself.

If you don't, then go and torrent some stuff. Vote with your wallet.

> On the other hand, if it only lasts several years, many people would have the choice of paying right now or waiting for the copyright to expire and getting it for free.

You're basically asking to make everything free 5 years later.

Totally. Not. Going. To. Happen.

You will have a lot of musicians shouting at UK members of parliament. At a time when they're already having hearings/committees on making royalty payments fairer for musicians and the prime minister is personally getting called out on it [1].

> It's also very unfortunate that the entirety of our pop culture is covered by copyright right now.

I see literally zero copyright happening on Facebook posts, where I assume most of pop culture is still happening (it's still 2013 right?).

> And second thing to make it work even better: copyright should not be transferable. It should not be possible to sign something to forfeit your exclusive rights to your own work.

It's my asset. I should be able to do what I damned well want with my asset.

Maybe I want to sell the rights and go on a 3 week drugs and hookers bender?

Or maybe I need to pay off some debts? People go bankrupt and stuff and have to sell off assets. Copyright is an asset.

Much like anyone who owns a house owns an asset. Again, this comes back to the value that society has placed in musical works.

--

Reason I'm posting this comment -- every so often I see some "enlightened" person on HN claiming how to fix copyright.

You can't. It's like democracy, it ain't perfect but it's the best we've got right now.

Could it be better? Sure. But don't try and do a full rewrite, cos that's how you completely and utterly destroy s good thing [2].

Source: used to work for the only music PRO in the UK.

Caveat: it was a few years ago and I was drinking a lot at the time, mind

[0]: https://www.theverge.com/2012/4/20/2962194/youtube-gema-copy...

[1]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-57382459

[2]: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-...