Ownership and Authorship

What should be authorless? How about the touchtone sounds? (There is a group in Australia who would like to own all the possible patterns of the phone sounds) The sky? The air? These last two may seem ridiculous, but I would not be surprised if an enterprising individual tries to take credit for them. Cordero speaks of making certain trademarks if not authorless, then at least accessible to the public as cultural icons, for example, Barbie. His reasoning is that there are symbols which have come to define our culture, and thus should be available for American citizens to celebrate this culture. The problem is that I would not like to have something that I created taken away and dispersed to unknown billions without compensation, and also, cultural considerations change, and the icons of today may be unknown tomorrow.

I would support various songs such as the Battle Hymn of the Republic, to be authorless. While Cordero's icons are still relatively new, the Hymn has endured.

I could see an ownership model reflecting a fractured authorship, something like condos. One can "rent" or purchase the trademark or copyright for a limited amount of time, so as to allow others to use it. It would almost be like ownership of stock.