Your Own Argument and Opinions

I agree with the copyright laws almost totally, it makes protecting your wok very easy without being too restricting. The point that I found to be particularly disturbing however is the fact that a copyright has a time limitation, and if you or someone from you family estate is not around to renew it, at some point in time a person could benefit from it without being in violation of copyright law. “The Statute of Anne, it provided copyright protection for 14 years, which could be extended by another 14 years if the copyright owner was still alive when the first term expired” (Beatty, 507) Though since the time of Queen Ann, this period has been extended, “Today, a copyright is valid until 70 years after the death of the work's last living author or, in the case of works owned by a corporation, the copyright lasts 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter. Once a copyright expires, anyone may use the material. Mark Twain died in 1910, so anyone may now publish Tom Sawyer without permission and without paying a copyright fee” (Beatty, 507) the fact that a person could still publish or benefit from my work at any point is egregious. No matter how long it is, the fact that I was the originator of the work will never change, so I believe that that copyright protection for one’s work should be infinite and the should be no need for renewal, especially since according to copyright law an initial registration is not necessary for copyright protection. It then makes no sense to place any sort of time limitation on that protection. I think that I would join the fight with many other artists and creators in order to have that part of the Copyright Act changed, repealed or amended to protect the artist and their works infinitely. I want to know that even in death, no one could claim rights to, take credit for, or benefit from the work that I dedicated my life to without having to suffer some sort of consequences.