Summations Only

I agree that rewards should lie with the person who does the work. The problem is that work often equates to money (or is dependant on it) and without copyright, the rich and the well-funded would have a huge advantage. This would tend to concentrate power and wealth in a few hands, making it progressively harder and harder for anyone else to create anything. This would lead to a stifling of innovation; what is my motivation for developing a game, or coming up with a concept (which is a bit of work) if that effort will not be rewarded, if it will, in fact, only serve to make Activision richer?

Well, theoretically, I could sell my copyright to Activision and still get paid for my contribution.But yeah, in general, which is why I'm in favor of copyright revision, but in no way am I in favor of copyright removal.

Yes, both extremes are bad. Perpetual copyright is bad, removal of copyright is bad. I advocate for a revision of copyright. But why would I want to do any work, when the end result is that some other company will take what I've invested time and money into, make it faster and cheaper, because they already have all the work I did, take credit for it, make a profit, and leave me poorer and weaker than had I never even started? Yeah, I may be able to go buy the game and play it and see the world I created brought to life, but that's a bit bittersweet, isn't it? provided you have the money and resources to do so But at least your idea will come to fruition...and isn't that your motivation? Perpetual copyright does. Why does it have to be one extreme or the other? Why can't we just reform copyright law, rather than deciding that we'd rather have no copyright law at all, making it nearly impossible for the low-funded, unknown artist to make a living off their effort?

Cool. Cuz as it stands, I do have a pretty cool idea for an MMORPG. Wanna send me some money to get it started?I can't say much, I don't want Activision to steal it, but trust me, it's pretty awesome.

That's my point, I don't want to blab it, but then what makes a prospective investor want to send me money?

Single player RPG might be possible for the idea I have, but I really think it lends itself better the a multi-player platform.As for a budget, I'm not sure. I'd need to hire a team of programmers (I'm not one myself), probably a couple more people to work with me on hashing out storylines and designs. It would need test space, so servers, electricity, rent on an office...we'd probably need a lot of money.

Thanks, but I'm pretty sure that is the response I'll get from just about everyone. I can certainly say what I would do with excess money, but as for trying to aim at a dollar amount, I have no idea where to even start to find that. See, Tim Schafer has done this before, he knows what it takes and can ball park a number based on his experiences.Most people who don't have this experience are basically going to be saying, "I'm aiming for as much as I can get." Since I'm not a coder, I don't even know how extensive the coding will need to be to bring my idea to fruition, which means I don't know how many programmers I'll need, nor how many computers/servers I'll need.That's the issue I'm trying to illustrate, in order to create the type of proposal that would get a lot of people (or a few wealthy people) to invest in the the idea, I would need to already have experience doing this sort of thing - experience I can't get without funding, and around and around we go.

The current system of perpetual copyrights is broken. It stifles creativity and ingenuity. The current system of silly copyrights, copyrighting a concept or a vague process, is broken. It stifles creativity and ingenuity.Total lack of copyright is a terrible option. It would tend to keep an unknown artist out of the market by allowing a larger, more well-funded company to sweep in, copy the work, distribute it farther with more advertising, and profit from the work of another. It would stifle creativity and ingenuity.The solution: reform copyright laws such that they expire after a reasonable amount of time. This lets the person or people who do the work profit from it. It gives people an incentive to create, and a reasonable expectation that should their idea prove profitable, they will see some of that profit.