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by beachy 1348 days ago
Whatever the merits of your sugggestion, verifying that a company was "actually and actively be trying to make money" would be wide open to abuse and practically speaking, impossible.
3 comments

This could be easily solved, if the burden of proof was on the company itself... when they report/sue you for copyright infringement, they'd just have to prove, that it's reasonably simple for the person to obtain the material legally (so, is there a (eg nintendo) distributer in the country of the accused, is there a store that sells those games there, is it possible to buy it online, etc.). If there are no reasonable legal ways to obtain the material, then you cannot claim lost profit and the "pirate" cannot get fined/sued for infringement.
Simpler still, collect property taxes on copyright. Companies aren't going to pay money just to sit on something that doesn't earn more money.
That simply ruins the copyright system for everyone that isn't making money. Which is pretty bad given that copyright is also what stops people from say, simply stealing someone's art drawn and shared as a hobby or even drawn and shared as part of a portfolio (and thus indirectly being a potential source of profit for them).
Seems unlikely that it’s a particularly hard problem to solve, given that trademark law works in a similar way, where if you stop actively using the mark in the market, you can lose it.
Why? Make copyright something you register and pay for and companies making no money from them would simply stop paying.
This but apply to all property. Unused lots of land will be a liability. Empty houses should be onerously expensive.
But if someone takes your land, you lose it. If someone looks at a bootleg photo of your land you still have your land, if you ever choose to monetize it again.
What is the video game equivalent of a bootleg photo of land? A bootleg video trailer?
They’re called property taxes.
empty houses in the middle of nowhere dont bother anyone.