The Case For Perpetual Copyright

Several readers sent in a link to an op-ed in the NYTimes by novelist Mark Halprin, who lays out the argument for what amounts to perpetual copyright. He says that anything less is essentially an unfair public taking of property: "No good case exists for the inequality of real and intellectual property, because no good case can exist for treating with special disfavor the work of the spirit and the mind." This community can surely supply a plethora of arguments for the public domain, words which don't appear in the op-ed. In a similar vein, reader benesch sends us to the BBC for a tale of aging pop performers (virtually) serenading Parliament in favor of extending copyright for recording artists in the UK. Some performers are likely to outlive the current protections, now fixed at a mere 50 years.
Update: 05/20 22:50 GMT by KD : Podcaster writes to let us know that the copyright reform community is crafting a reply over at Lawrence Lessig's wiki.

Comments

Re:what are you wacked?

[bsane]

Actually, I think I get the joke!

This guy is known to write biting satire... Either that article is a fine example, or its one of the worst reasoned essays I've ever read.

Re:Missing the point...

[LordLucless]

Copyright was intended as a means to prevent monopolies on publication and distribution.

I have no idea how you were modded insightful. Explain to me how the granting of monopolies acts to prevent monopolies...

Copyright in Britain was originally established so that printing houses who'd just bought an author's book wouldn't be undercut by other printing houses who could just run off copies without paying the author's fee (1). Copyright in the US was constitutionally established to promote the progress of science and useful arts (2). Copyright was intended to enforce artificial monopolies, not prevent them.

If you want people to look it up, maybe you should provide some credible references for your claims.

1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_copyright_ law#Movable_type
2: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/ar ticles.html (Section 8)
Look it up.