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Eldred v. Ashcroft Oral Arguments
PMuse and others wrote in about the oral arguments held today in the Eldred v. Ashcroft case challenging the most recent 20-year retroactive extension of copyright terms. Google News will cover the mainstream news stories about it; transcripts of the arguments will eventually be posted; but as I write this the only first-hand reports appear to be LawMeme and the Associated Press. Reader McSpew adds a link to a piece by Steven Levy explaining the importance of Eldred v. Ashcroft and what's really at stake. Update: 10/09 19:12 GMT by T : khkramer links to his own summary of the arguments, writing "I have press credentials
at the court, so I was able to take notes
during the argument, and in the summary I tried to cover
all of the major issues that the Justices
asked about."
Actually I am an artist and I can still be inspired by protected pieces of work. What I cannot do, nor will I do, even with public domain pieces of work, is copy or rip them off. Inspiration comes from MANY different places. I could be walking down the street and see a sign and be inspired. I've been inspired by traditional japanese paintings. In fact I used this theme in a recent poster I designed. Did I copy another piece of work? No. What did I do? I studied japanese prints and mixed this look with my own personal style creating a completely original piece of work.
The fact is Disney is a straw man argument. People want copyright to go away compeletely do they can copy music online via P2P apps. If works in the public domain were held in as high esteem as you seem to think they are then P2P networsk would be flooded by early jazz, blues and classical music. Instead we see current movies and music being traded on a scale never possible before. People don't want Steamboat Willie, they want to copy the latest Disney film.