> some retired Grandma who writes popular mysteries is going to have to pay the government regularly to keep amazon from selling thousands of copies of her work without having to pay her
Well, for the first 5 years after publication, no. She would need to do nothing exactly as the world exists today. She would have an exclusive period of 5 years to monetize the book exclusively without having to register it, pay anyone, or talk to anyone.
After 5 years, she would have to pay $500 (again, exact value for discussion purposes, not a final proposal) and register it with a government website (with her contact information, and attesting that she still owns the work). After 10 years, she would have to pay again, and update the registration. Or, if the works are no longer valuable, she could simply not do that, and let the works enter the public domain.
The _entire point_ is that works that _aren't financially viable_ enter the public domain rapidly, and works that are continuing to produce financial value would be worth registration. >99% of works produced would likely never be registered (since every comment on a website counts as a separate "work"), and would enter the public domain after 5 years. Only a small fraction would be extended for 5 years.
But, yes, if you want exclusive rights to your game for 10 years, you'd have to pay a small amount of money and fill out a form on a website (my goal would be about the same difficulty as updating your whois information for a registered domain name). If it's not worth that amount of trouble, then the work enters the public domain.
> Everyone who makes a side project game on itch.io has to keep it online forever
My proposal had no _online_ requirement. So, no, that wouldn't be part of my proposal. Don't know where you got that requirement from.
As a consumer id just wait for indie games and smalltime books to become free. This ruins the demand and people have much less incentive to create.
In general taking money away and giving it to a government is not a productive solution and definitely hinders creativity
You can already do this to an extent. Wait a while for a book / game to have used copies available for a deep discount or easily checked out from Library
I agree that some people would do this. However the proliferation of early access games and pre-ordered/special editions coming with an early access period suggests there is a significant chunk of consumers willing to pay to get something earlier
If the studio expected > $500 of potential sales in years 5-10, then they would pay the fee and the game wouldn’t enter the public domain for 10 years.
Every game that experiences even a moderate success would probably be locked up for 15 years in this scenario, and every game that experiences even a hint of success would be locked up for 10 years.
I cannot imagine that the number of people who are willing to wait 10-15 years to play a game instead of spending $20 now will
materially harm the same of a game.
Waiting 5 years for small obscure game is easier then waiting for some massively successful game everyone talks about. Likewise, limiting your selection to 5 years old games is easier when you go for small niche games.
This would hit the small and niche companies hardest.
Well, for the first 5 years after publication, no. She would need to do nothing exactly as the world exists today. She would have an exclusive period of 5 years to monetize the book exclusively without having to register it, pay anyone, or talk to anyone.
After 5 years, she would have to pay $500 (again, exact value for discussion purposes, not a final proposal) and register it with a government website (with her contact information, and attesting that she still owns the work). After 10 years, she would have to pay again, and update the registration. Or, if the works are no longer valuable, she could simply not do that, and let the works enter the public domain.
The _entire point_ is that works that _aren't financially viable_ enter the public domain rapidly, and works that are continuing to produce financial value would be worth registration. >99% of works produced would likely never be registered (since every comment on a website counts as a separate "work"), and would enter the public domain after 5 years. Only a small fraction would be extended for 5 years.
But, yes, if you want exclusive rights to your game for 10 years, you'd have to pay a small amount of money and fill out a form on a website (my goal would be about the same difficulty as updating your whois information for a registered domain name). If it's not worth that amount of trouble, then the work enters the public domain.
> Everyone who makes a side project game on itch.io has to keep it online forever
My proposal had no _online_ requirement. So, no, that wouldn't be part of my proposal. Don't know where you got that requirement from.