User:Pde/USFTA/Term extension diagram

I've been thinking that one effective way of conveying the effects of the extension, and countering the extensive and confusing material which policy makers will be bombarded with, is a diagram.

I've produced a draft:



A larger version is also available.

It might form the core of a submission, with footnotes linking it to an attached document which explains bits of the diagram. Some examples:


 * the cost of performance rights is only borne indirectly by contemporary artists
 * the presence of "negotiation failure" and "deadweight loss" costs may need to be illustrated for the reader

devil's advocacy by aj@azure.humbug.org.au:

There's probably some benefits to be had from copyright term extension. Possibilities:


 * Australian and Overseas holders --> Australian public (republication of various old works, remakes, rereleases, etc; made available in higher quality than the commons could manage)
 * Australian and Overseas holders --> Current artists (better able to support new works, because they have more money thanks to maintaining profits on old works)

One particular argument copyright holders seem to like is that old movies and such are too expensive to recover and distribute as part of the commons, and the only way they can be managed is via big companies, and the only way that'll happen is if they can get a profit. I'm not sure how you'd represent that on the diagram -- it's a "no longer lost opportunity", but I'm not really sure for whom.

other advocacy by aj@azure.humbug.org.au:

If you make this issue non-retrospective -- ie only applying to new works, all the arrows here disappear to nothing, except one:


 * US <-> Australia (free trade deal)