[scotty79]

What's insane is copyright. How come you can own intellectual property but not pay a property tax? The ecosystem would be much healthier if to get copyright protections you should declare value of your IP (that you are obligated to sell for if the buyer pops up) and pay tax on this for every year you hold the IP.

[retsibsi]

> if to get copyright protections you should declare value of your IP (that you are obligated to sell for if the buyer pops up) and pay tax on this for every year you hold the IP

I think this would have some unpalatable consequences. Let's say an author is writing a modestly successful book series: it's not going to make them rich, but it's commercially viable and they care a lot about it for its own sake. Under this system, if the author declares a value commensurate with the (quite small) pure economic value of the IP, they have to live in fear of their right to continue working on their creation being abruptly taken away from them at any point. If they instead declare a value commensurate with the economic value + the extra value that it has to them personally, the resulting tax liability could easily tip the balance and destroy their ability to pursue their writing as a career.

[scotty79]

You are always free to update the value before paying tax. If somebody is willing to pay more than it's worth to you they probably have an idea how to turn it into more economic value for the society. So the society should allow them to do that. For a price, of the tax. What I'm proposing is about the financial rights. Individual right, like the right to call yourself author of any given creation should be inalienable.

There are always some cases on the edge. The question is if saving them is worth the cost of the major players running rampant.

[immibis]

Indeed, this is a general problem with a lot of these schemes.

We shouldn't abandon the line of investigation, however. We should continue thinking of ways to do this until we find one that works well.

There's a chance it ends up being something that requires a judge to interpret each individual case...

[Workaccount2]

Perhaps the tax would start a decade after the first sale.

[gruez]

>What's insane is copyright. How come you can own intellectual property but not pay a property tax? The

Most jurisdictions that have "property tax" only apply it on certain types of property, most commonly real estate. So it's not that weird that IP isn't taxed.

[thunderfork]

Can you imagine if we evaluated property taxes this way? Yeah, nice single family home, better hope nobody offers you the same amount you paid for it or it's back to apartment living for you and your kids.

[scotty79]

If you live there there should be some protections. But when it comes to rentals or vacation homes I think those rules could be great as well.