At 09:54 AM 1/20/2003 -0500, Trei, Peter wrote:
I think those who really oppose Congresss' actions expanding copyright should take the position that there needs to be a rollback to it original 14 + 14 year limit.> How can it "dwindle?" The public domain can only increase or hold > steady. All this ruling does is damp the rate of increase. > > Marc de Piolenc > It dwindles because the rate at which the copyright period is increasing averages more than 1 year/year. Quite a number of works which had been in the public domain fell out of it when the 20 year extension went into effect.The public domain *did* dwindle.
If everyone with the means to scan and OCR documents on their PC would undertake to convert just a few of their favorite items who's copyright would have expired under the original regime and place it up on a popular P2P it could shortly lead to a fait accompli. In the end most laws must accommodate the culture.
steve
