It’s always been curios to me that the author or inventor or artist doesn’t own the rights to their work for all time. Why do these things expire?
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To stop monopolies. When one entity has sole control over a technique, material, device then they have historically abused that position to gain power and wealth.
So we give them the rights for a short period of time. A small period where they have no competition and are able to get things up and running. Especially as the first ones often face larger challenges (sourcing materials, logistics, spare parts, training, etc…).
During this period the item/service is often sold cheaply to build a customer base.
But after that, others get a chance. Otherwise the price of the service just goes up and up. And anyone trying to work around it pays fines, licensing, or faces legal problems.
One example is the Lucas Films Star-wars franchise. They have the rights, and routinely let people buy the rights to use it. Final Fantasy games had a license and made a very successful collectible card game with the content. As time went on, Lucas Films kept raising the licensing price until FFG was no longer making any profit from their product. Every $ earned on their card game was essentially sent to Lucas Films for the right to make the game. So FFG shut down the entire line.
Now, imagine this with something like “light switches” or “LED’s”.
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