Disney Wins, Eldred (and everyone else) Loses

hondo77 writes "In a 7-2 decision, The Supreme Court gave Disney what they wanted. Story just broke, no details yet." They're talking about the Eldred case, recently argued before the Supreme Court and mentioned on Slashdot many times. The upshot is that no works produced in the United States after the 1920's will ever go out of copyright. Opinions: Majority opinion, Stevens' dissent, Breyer's dissent.

Comments

This is NOT "correct" legally.

[I'm a racist.]

As Lessig argued, this is not truly limited. That's the exact problem. If it were limited, things would fall out of copyright. Have you noticed much of anything falling out of copyright?

Endless (retroactive) copyright extensions mean that the term of a copyright is not limited. Really, if something does not fall out of copyright within the typical lifetime it's not limited. The framers most likely implied, by use of the word "limited", for copyrights to expire in a time notably less than the average lifespan. Currently, you shouldn't expect to see anything created in your life to fall into the public domain.

The thing is, the public has been indoctrinated to believe that copyrights should be something like the author's life + 75 years, or other unreasonable shit. Just ask an average "consumer" and they will probably be surprised by the idea of a copyright running out after 20 years.

The worst thing is that the profits from the vast majority of copyrighted works decays (something like) exponentially over time. So, most of this shit is locked up just because they want to hold on to the few "gems" that really earn over time (Mickey Mouse, Elvis, etc).

As a compromise I would say that we should institute a ~20 year copyright. Then allow 2-5 year extensions, that cost a buttload of cash to apply for. This means only the profitable stuff won't lapse into the public domain, and Disnet (et al.) can keep the things they want.

Of course, the best solution (ie. not a compromise) is to get some torches & pitchforks then lynch Eisner, Rosen, Valenti, etc. (let's lynch that fat whore Oprah while we're at it).

It looks like the public domain may have become essentially fixed and will no longer grow. Get used to it.

What a fucking shame...

Why does everything have to be free??

[Flounder]

This is meant to be an insightful troll, moderate it as such.

The world is not Linux. The world is not free. Why is it automatically assumed by members of this site that everything should be free?

Disney Corp wants to keep control of it's very identifiable mascot, Mickey Mouse. And why shouldn't they? What would Walt Disney think if some 40 years after his death, somebody with a computer and an internet connection was making porn cartoons with the characters he created? And nobody could do anything about it.

How would you feel if, after some established time period (let's say 50 years), ownership of your property passed into the public domain? Programs you wrote, houses and land you own, cars you drive. Somebody could take your house, move themselves in, and there was nothing you could do about it. In fact, the police would come to insure that you could not prevent them from moving in.

If you want to create something, create something original. Don't depend on the work somebody else did decades ago to be your only creative outlet. It's still legal to get inspiration from other works. And until they take that right away from us, use it. There are still original ideas being created every day.

Stop crying about how this is so damaging to the public good. How in the hell does Disney making money off of Mickey Mouse cartoons really matter? Is it so wrong to make money off of things? This is not the Socialist States of America (at least not yet), and I cannot work for free? If you want to program for open source free software projects, then so be it. That's your choice.

Is this post rambling on for no reason? Hell yes! I've been up all night and I'm tired. I just had to vent about the narrowmindedness of people that frequent this site complaining that they can't get something for free. Henry Ford started building cars almost 100 years ago. Does that give me the right to go down to my local Ford dealer and take a free 2003 Excursion off the lot? Then why do you have the right to make Mickey Mouse cartoons?

Flame away, I'll probably be asleep and won't read them anyway :)

Re:The USA has followed its own laws

[Kaa]

If we tossed out coropate personhood, they'd be run just like unincorporated business are--as a partnership among their stockholders

Don't be an idiot. How many people, do you think, will buy stock if it means all their personal assets can be taken for the company's debts? That's what getting rid of corporations means.