Transferable copyright and transferable real estate are the same thing imo. Not a huge fan of either, but I don't see how being the landlord's kid is any different from being an writers's kid.
> kids of inventors
Inventions are protected by patent or by trade secret, not by copyright. Patents have short shelf lives compared to copyright, mostly because mickey mouse was copyrighted but not patented.
The difference I see is that a landlord’s kid has to do 100% of the job his parent did or risk losing his landlordship. The writer’s kid doesn’t have to do anything at all.
Also yes, you’re right. I should have said “work of art” rather than “invention” to emphasize that I mean copyright and not patent. Parents have far more reasonable durations.
> The difference I see is that a landlord’s kid has to do 100% of the job his parent did or risk losing his landlordship
Lots of people who own small numbers of properties just hire a broker/property management company to do all the work for them. Also, renting out even a single family home requires damn close to zero labor even without hiring out the work. I rent one out and spend approximately one day a year on managing the property. Property management is a job. Property ownership isn't. The former does not pay nearly as well as the latter, and for most property classes, the former mostly amounts to paying other people to do the actual work once every few years.
TBH I imagine that maintaining a copyright with significant associated royalties also requires as much or more work than managing a property. You'd probably just hire a law firm or publisher to do all the work for you. If you didn't then you'd have to be monitoring for abuse, handling lawsuits, collecting royalties on contracts with publishers/distributors, etc.
I think you probably over-estimate the labor involved in most property management, under-estimate the labor involved in IP management, and under-estimate how divorced management and ownership are in typical cases.
> kids of inventors
Inventions are protected by patent or by trade secret, not by copyright. Patents have short shelf lives compared to copyright, mostly because mickey mouse was copyrighted but not patented.