RSSIsn’t it great to be worth less than nothing?
Jun 07
In another blow to human rights, the UK has decided it would be a great idea to extend copyright terms even longer. Why is this important? Copyright term limits were created so that society eventually gets to benefit as a whole from artistic work. Does it make sense that people 3 generations removed from an artist still get to benefit from their works? No. Society should be able to benefit from it.
This argument still makes sense. Almost everyone agrees with it. Except who? The corporations who hold the rights, of course. Since they have unlimited access to lawyers and lobbyists, and the rest of us don’t, they get their way. Disney, and others, do this all the time in the US.
This is proof of the indemic corruption in western democracies at its best. But, no one seems to care because the same companies extending the term limits control the media (ie: Disney + ABC, etc) so make sure it’s not a big story.
Jul 25, 2005 @ 09:11:51
I think the real problem is what to do about corporations. Corporations exist for a much longer time than individual artists do. I think the answer is to beef up trademark laws before going after copyright laws. Since Disney is the poster child of copyright law, I will use it as an example. It is hard to argue directly that Disney would be materially harmed by its copyright on Steamboat Willy finally expiring. However, it could be materially harmed if anyone could make derivative works of the Mickey Mouse character contained therein. The solution, then, is to protected the Mickey Mouse character, while allowing the movie as an entire work to enter the public domain.
Jul 25, 2005 @ 09:34:00
I’m torn on whether I think the character should enter the public domain after a set number of years, like 25 as it used to be. Why not? Isn’t 25 years enough time to take advantage of an idea? That’s the same idea as patents.
I do like your idea as a compromise, so the works still enter the public domain.