[Guest post] Free stuff for billionaires and my Netflix fee.

A problem with this country is that some things that benefit everyone are purchased individually, and some things paid for collectively are given free to those few individuals who get all their benefit.

Yes, the biggest reason Netflix hiked rates is simply because they can. Everybody knows that Netflix service is still a good deal even at nearly twice the price. People grumble, but in the end they'll reach down into their pockets and pay an extra ten spot for the convenience of advertisement free, on-demand films and current TV shows. Have you seen the prices at a regular theater? I feel robbed watching "The Twenty" after shelling out twelve bucks for a ticket. And think of whot commercial infested "triple play" cable or DSL costs. How can anybody criticize Netflix for charging what the market will bear? Kudos to Netflix.

But there's another reason for the hike. Netflix has been opening its wallet up to Hollywood and needs to recover that royalty expense. Back in December, there were reports of Netflix offering top dollar for TV shows. More recently there was a deal with NBC Universal. And I expect that tons of other deals are in the making. We all want to watch the best and latest movies, Netflix wants to save postage by setting up streaming deals with studios, and the studios want their rent paid. So what does this have to do with free stuff and the fall of the American Empire? Simple.

Copyrights.

The constitution gives the government the power "to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." I understand society's need for the "embarrasment" of a patent or copyright, but there need to be limits to what private intellectual monopolies we create. The framers felt this way too. Note the phrase limited terms, and nowhere does it say the "securing" of the right has to be totally free of charge to the authors and inventors. Therefore, I say the government should start charging authors for copyrights. Yes, charge. Pay up for your free stuff you millionaire movie moguls and pulp fiction fat cats you.

The way the law is now, copyrights are basically free of charge, and last more than a lifetime. In my view, that's free stuff for billionaires, pure and simple. Disney company sits there in taxpayer protected veritable perpetuity rent seeking with a portfolio of films created by authors and artists now in the grave. To add insult to injury, many of those films are based on captured public domain characters or plagiarized stories and characters. In my opinion, so long as there's an taxpayer funded FBI warning on the Lion King, Disney owes the US taxpayer a cut of its action.

Here's how I'd do it. The first year, copyright would be free. By the end of that year, to continue receiving taxpayer financed protection of some "work" you'd need to register the work on the USPTO web site and pay $1. Yes, just a buck the first year. The second year, the price would be $2 to renew. Then $4, $8, $16, and so on. After 10 years the renewal will be $1024. If you can't make a grand from your book or movie in ten years, maybe you need to give up on it and write something better, OK? After 20 years the price would be just over a million bucks, still chump change for any big media catalog item, like Harry Potter. If after 20-30 years you're making enough money on your work, you'll pay. If you miss a payment: bzzzzzt! The work goes into the public domain. As original author you can still sell or use it after failing to renew, but so can anyone else.

I hate to say it, but US manufacturing is fading. Is there any doubt that intellectual property is the way of the future for this country? We need to support new IP creators and we need to support the development of innovative information distributors like Netflix and Amazon. Locking down the rent seeking business model of big media is not the way to promote the progress of science and the useful arts. Media innovators need an open playing field, with a rich public domain providing a steady flow of new content unencumbered by an entrenched media monopoly.

Unsurprisingly, Obama and his Hollywood backers have offered nothing with regard to this sort of IP reform, but the GOP hasn't been any better. Of late, none of our elected representatives seem to be looking out for the public interest on this issue. PDEA seems dead. My copyright-for-a-fee plan might generate a few cents to help balance the budget, but more importantly it would shake loose millions of so called "orphaned" works, abandoned by their original authors yet unusable by Netflix or Amazon because of the uncertainty in their ownership. It would also gradually strip exclusivity away from original authors after "limited terms" in natural proportion to how important and/or profitable the work is to that author. Over time, even the most valuable works would turn over to the public domain, as I believe was the Founding Father's original intent. Best of all, the predictable supply of freed IP would allow third parties to find innovative ways to deliver high quality content without being burdened by perpetual payments to rent seekers.

Want a way to tax the rich and promote innovation at the same time? Charge for copyrights.

Posted at 12:13 by Nadz   [/guest/nadz]   Comments | Perm Link |
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