On Thu, 22 Jul 2004 17:03:54 -0500, Christian M. Cepel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > What does that mean? I still don't understand. > > Richard Walker wrote: > > >If left up to Sonny Bono and the RIAA there would be no > >public domain.
Sonny Bono, of recording industry fame as one half of Sonny & Cher in the 1960's and 1970's, was a U.S. senator or congress-critter (can't remember which), and he pushed strongly for (and won) a hefty extension in the U.S. copyright period. Thanks to him, Mickey Mouse is still under copyright protection and will be for a good number of years to come. Unfortunately, not only is The Mouse protected, but so are a lot of authors from the 1920's and 1930's who were on the verge of having their works move into the public domain before the Bono extension came along. The RIAA is the Recording Industry Association of America, who seem to be of the firm belief that people should not be able to *buy* music, but only rent it for a while - no re-sale of CDs or any such nonsense. And they are the ones who are trying to make it so that you can't play your brand-new CD on your stereo at home and the stereo in your car - you should have to buy at least one copy per machine that you want to play it on. And there is no such thing as "fair use", since it infringes on their right to make people spend tons of money paying for the same music over and over again. Hope this helps. Geoff Loker To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
