I don't think it would lead to outright collapse, nor do I think it would lead to some kind of artistic flowering but it certainly would shake things up a lot in good and bad ways.

IP law is a balancing act. We have to continuously adjust things one way or another so that creativity flourishes. If it's only public domain, creativity dies. If everything is straitjacketed in a repressive copyright, patent, trademark regime where only middlemen benefit, creativity dies.

One of best explanations I've seen recently about IP law and what needs to be fixed about it is a web comic called "Bound By Law"

[www.law.duke.edu]

Read it.

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Look at Mickey Mouse. Disney's going to hold copyright on that rodent till hell freezes over, but how much of their revenue is actually generated, specifically, by the guy? Almost nothing! He's not in any films, he's not in any ads outside Disney bumpers - and even then only rarely anymore - and he's not a major component of their merchendising branch anymore, either. Hell by the time the mid fifties rolled around, most Disney shorts involved Donald's friends anyway. The Mouse had already taken a back seat. Had they lost him then, it wouldn't have been much of a big deal.

The primary reason copyrights last so long is so that people can protect the potential to make money on it in the distant future. Almost no product ever actually does this, though. And the few times they do, you can trace it back to a lack of imagination or foresight on the creators' part.

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Probably due to a confused Aunt I'd guess.

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