Tuesday, October 8, 2002, 8:41:03 AM, you wrote: >>Another case I am watching, starts this week in the Supreme court. >>Eldred v. Ashcroft, challenging the constitutionality of the copyright >>extension, that has kept Mickey Mouse and Gershwin works copyrighted >>long past when they should have become public domain.
RC> As much as I think copyright law needs updating - I have to wonder - RC> will the world be a better place if Mickey Mouse was 'freed' from RC> copyright? I mean, it's all well and good to say it should be - and it's RC> easy to think of Disney as a corporate empire - but at some level they RC> do represent a person who used his creative energy to create something. RC> I get the whole idea of limited copyright lifespans - but on another RC> level, if it was YOU who had created MM, how would you feel about being RC> _forced_ to free it? Also, I can't imagine that there are struggling RC> artists/whatever out there who _need_ Mickey Mouse to be free so they RC> can help launch their own careers. RC> In other words - open source is nice - but we don't _force_ developers RC> to give their code away. RC> Just some rambling thoughts this morning.... Benefits of freeing the world from Mickey Mouse licensing fees? I see none :) However the court case is really more about the more valuable copyrights that continue to generate revenue for a company that does nothing. That is negative production imho, and bad for the society. I think more importantly the copyright extension also covers a huge amount of material that is of no monetary use to anyone, but needs to be de-copyrighted so it can be copied, and me and you can buy dvd's of old 30's movies and music that otherwise would never be seen. The US copyright length is now at life of author + 70 years, which is well 20 years over the Berne Convention standards, thanks to Mr. Bono's law. -- jon mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ______________________________________________________________________ Your ad could be here. Monies from ads go to support these lists and provide more resources for the community. http://www.fusionauthority.com/ads.cfm Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
