> Marc de Piolenc[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > > Matthew X wrote: > > We learned as much on Wednesday when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that > > Congress can repeatedly extend copyright terms, as it did most recently > in > > 1998 when it added 20 years to the terms for new and existing works. > > > He wanted to publish on the Internet a number of books that should have > > been in the public domain by now. The people who still control most > older > > works have demonstrated little or no interest in making them available > -- > > and our heritage dwindles by the day. > > 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. Peter Trei
