Cultural Feudalism

A few years back, all I Love Lucy episodes could be watched -- and laughed at -- on YouTube.  Then they disappeared.  It was hardly a secret why.  Lucy and Desi's heirs imposed a copyright lockdown.   Pay to laugh, peasants!

Why should this lock-down be allowed?  The social policy behind copyrights is to give the original creator an incentive for the exercise of his  -- or in this case -- her and his genius.   It is a sound, fair and unobjectionable policy.  The public enjoyed and benefited from the aesthetic, intellectual, musical or dramatic genius of the creator who was in turn rewarded with the public's gratitude in the form of money.

But what have Lucy's children done to reap the rewards of their mother's efforts and talent?  Nothing; nothing at all.   They are not even analogous to the children of counts or dukes who take over and continue to manage the estate.   In this latter case, the heirs don't simply inherit benefits they inherit a job and obligations as well. The same is true for the heir of a tycoon, who takes over the running of the company.  In either of these two cases the successors in interest put their own work into the matter.   But other than hire accountants to manage their royalties, Lucy's children don't do a damn thing.  They simply live off the copyright their parents earned.

But the purpose of that copyright was to act as an incentive for genius -- “to stimulate the useful arts and sciences.” That purpose was served.  Holding on to an inherited copyright stimulates nothing. Copyright was never envisioned as analogous to a fee simple absolute in land.  On the contrary it expired after some term, at which point it became public property in the common realm. 

Allowing successors in interests who are not themselves original creators of the work simply creates a form cultural feudalism in which all peasants must pay fees for grazing on what was intended to be common pasture.

The regime of capitalism in its furious demise is relentless, heartless and implacable.  Its parasites and robed whores are privatising everything making everyone else pay for what ought to be held in common and enjoyed freely for free.