Taxation - a new twist on copyright protection?
Mon, 03/03/2008 - 11:43am | by daniel
Just stumbled upon this interesting suggestion - copyrights should be taxed:
http://afternoonblag.blogspot.com/2008/03/why-isnt-intellectual-property... .
This way, copyright claims would be treated more similarly to patent claims (upholding which requires substantial fees), and incentives would be provided to transfer copyrighted material (such as research articles) into the public domain.

Comments
Federal Income Tax: The
Federal Income Tax: The federal income tax is the largest source of funds used to finance federal government expenditures. Besides raising revenue, the federal income tax serves a social function by allocating resources, subsidizing some persons or activities, encouraging certain kinds of economic and social behavior, redistributing wealth, stimulating economic growth, and addressing specific social problems such as pollution and urban decay. Although the federal income tax applies to most revenue producing entities including all U.S. citizens and residents, corporations, trusts, and estates, this section is focused on individual income taxation. The tax is a progressive tax -- with the percentage of tax increasing as the net taxable income of a taxpayer increases.
Sounds like a lot of new
Sounds like a lot of new jobs could be created for this type of thing, which could be a good thing. However, the USPTO has been backlogged for quite some time. (Note, there is also a very high turnover there...)
http://ip-updates.blogspot.com/2007/12/queuing-theorist-finds-uspto-back...