THIS has been a big issue in my whole life!
Some think, and it is very possible… I was held by Hollywood for my ideas spanning decades because people simply could not afford to recognize me and pay me. Well, I got some good and bad experiences out of all that. I will reiterate, I am DONE with Hollywood. I’m old now and people attached to me needed to move on too, thankfully!
What comes to mind are some ideas on handling IP creators, creatives, users, admirers.
The main idea I wish to express is this: Can we find a way to allow a person to receive credit for at least on major IP in their life, should they have come up with it? I know a great fear is that, “It may be worth a lot of money!” But what if we all predefined a maximum value for the original creative? Never exceeding an amount.. no matter what the IP actually is. The person gets the notoriety(public announcement) and the fixed amount and that’s it! Call this “The Reward”. It could look like $10k and that’s it. And no more in life. After that every one after that has to be given to a talent pool (of people who have not yet gotten paid and fame) and someone who is a good fit, gets it. Does this sound communistic or is it a way to prevent a creative, agency, studio, corporation from being greedy?
Another idea is “IP trading”. This could take place between people who have already gotten “that one famed IP in life”, people who haven’t gotten the fame and money yet, or even one of each? Here are the brief scenarios for IP TRADING:
1. NEW PERSON has a great idea worth “the reward”, but doesn’t want to use this idea for their “one IP reward in life” so they give it to another person, and they use it for “The Reward”
2. NEW PERSON has a great idea worth “the reward” but makes a deal to TRADE the new IP(IP #1) with someone who has already gotten “the reward” for another IP(IP #2). What happens is that the previous IP that was rewarded is now owned by the New Person, and the already famed person gets the new IP and “The Reward”.. but what happens is BOTH are named publicly and noted who is now the owner of IP #1 and IP #2. The previous reward winner gives their reward money to the New Person. The result is New Person gets the money from IP #2, and the previous winner gets the new reward money for IP #1.
The General Rule of IP’s is that ONLY ONE PERSON or ENTITY can “own” the ORIGINAL fame and money for any given IP no matter what. Trading is possible. No one person or entity can own more than one IP’s creation/ownership fame and original cash reward.
What this sets up is… over time, there will be MANY HUMAN BEINGS with an ownership of ONE IP that they got “The Reward” for. If tomorrow for instance, someone walked into the United States (or your own country) and said, “I have 200,000 NEW IPs that are valid and usable, WORTH ‘The Reward’ (and there is money for all of them)”… we’d need to find 200,000 human beings to attach each IP to! And they can keep their ONE IP forever, until death, unless traded.
I’ll write up more about the idea of BARTERING IPs and what can happen AFTER and BEYOND the original owner gets “The Reward”. STAY TUNED. =)
Actually… I’m NOT prepared yet to write more on this subject. At this time thinking it is a very stable and sustainable method to limit the “owner” of an IP to a certain amount of money and publication/fame. Separately, the development people and investors, licensees and consumers, buyers should have a separate world of deals that are more flexible.