Dustin Puryear wrote:
>I'm a day late and a dollar short to this discussion,
>
Me too, but there's an interesting discussion in the International
Herald Tribune:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/07/opinion/edsmiers.php
"...These industries decide whether the materials they have laid their
hands on may be used by others - and, if they allow it, under what
conditions and for what price. European and American legislation extends
them that privilege for a window of no less than 70 years after the
passing of the original author. The consequences? The privatization of
an ever-increasing share of our cultural expressions, because this is
precisely what copyright does. Our democratic right to freedom of
cultural and artistic exchange is slowly but surely being taken away
from us..."
This is principally about artistic copyrights but I believe that the
basic issues that are currently to the forefront of the media
discussions simply illustrate all that's broken with the patent industry.
Edmund Cramp
--
The day may come when we'll reject the money of the rich as tainted,
but it hadn't come when I left Tammany Hall at 11:25 today.
~ George Washington Plunkett, 1905
