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The Double Edge of Copyright Extensions
porkface writes "The Morning News is running a simple, but eloquent editorial that plainly shows how Hollywood has routinely benefitted from the expiration of copyright, despite their adamant pressure on Capitol Hill to extend copyright almost indefinitely."
What's mine is mine, what's yours should be mine also if I can profit from it.
You mean that they've been profiting... and still trying to pay off congress to let them profit more?!? Next you'll be telling me the record companies are going bankrupt.
If firefighters fight fire, and crimefighters fight crime, what do freedom fighters fight? - George Carlin
What's the other edge?
Don't you know it is now both immoral and criminal to think beyond the next quarterly report?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
LXG is based on a comic book entitled The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen
I say this acronym doesn't have a LEG to stand on.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
We must inform you that one of our member companies owns the copyright to that joke, and will for the next 287 years, congress willing.
This is a formal request to cease and desist telling it, you evil, evil, AC.
Aggressively yours,
The Lame Joke Association of America
Foremost amongst them was Eric Eldred, a bookmonger from Massachusetts who wished to continue providing free texts to his Web site's visitors. He eventually brought suit against the federal government, and the Supreme Court heard his case, Eldred v. Ashcroft
Update: Mr. Eldred, according to his family, has not been heard of for some time. It has been rumored that Mr. Eldred may have had contacts with the "free internet texts", a free information dissident group, considered a dangerous hacker organization, and therefore very likely to be in connection with international terrorist groups.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
"Gee Mickie, why are you so depressed?"
Mickie Mouse: "They're committing Minnie to the insane asylum."
"But Mickie, I thought you said you were mad at Minnie and that she was crazy."
Mickie Mouse: "I didn't say she was crazy! I said she was fuckin' Goofy!"
So how long until I can expect a cease and disist letter from Disney?
On second thought, I guess you're right.
Under the Berne convention the copyright term of foreign works lasts for the same time they are protected in the country of origin. Imagine Israel would enact a law similar to US congress, granting copyright in perpetuity. Imagine the law would extend to works of the past, like the various US copyright extensions, but infinitely. Now the state of Israel, in substitution of the original author if you want, could claim ownership of the Bible or Thora or whatever, including all derivative works and translations.
As a future IP lawyer and religious fanatic I can hardly tell how excited I am.
Disney and Microsoft have gotten rich using the same business model: rip off other people's intellectual property, and then jealously guard it as your own.
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
good idea! Euro Disney and Tokyo Disney.
Personally, I don't see what all the fuss is about. Congress is perfectly within their rights keep on extending copyright protection. After all, who would congress listen to if they didn't listen to the big corporations who benefit from this sort of thing. Not to say that I disagree with their direction at all. Quite the opposite. In fact, I'm still not satisfied with the law as it stands. I have all kinds of great original ideas that I have shared with my closest friends and family members. They all agree with me and think they're great. But frankly, if I only have control over my ideas until 70 years after I'm dead, I don't see the point of moving forward. So come on congress, give me and the millions of other Americans out there some incentive to be creative.
~Warning!~ The above is encrypted using rot676!