Under U.S. copyright law, authors have the exclusive right to their writings dur
ID: 1204628 • Letter: U
Question
Under U.S. copyright law, authors have the exclusive right to their writings during their lifetimes – unless they sell this right, as most authors do to their publishers – and their heirs retain this exclusive right for 70 years after their death. The historian Thomas Macaulay once described the copyright law as a “tax on readers to give a bounty to authors.” In what sense does the existence of the copyright law impose a tax on the readers? What “bounty” do copyright laws give authors? Discuss whether the government would be doing readers a favor by abolishing copyright law.
Explanation / Answer
The existence of the copyright law impose a tax on the readers in the sense that the price which the reader pays for the book to the publisher includes along with the publisging costs, the cost , which publisher pays to the writer for his copywrights over he has over his writings and hence the price paid by the reader increases.
The “bounty” copyright laws give authors is the amount that they from the publishers for getting for their writings being published by them.
Yes, the government would be doing readers a favor by abolishing copyright law as once the copyrights is abolished any publisher can publish the writings of the writers without giving any loyalities for the same and hence their cost of production decreases and the benefits of which can be passsed on to the reader by decreasing the price of the published materials and thus, the reader gets benefitted from the same.
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