[Baron Munchausen]

So at what point DO you let go of something you've been pushing on the public for decades? (Not something YOU created, either.) If you keep pushing it on people and it becomes part of everyday life you then have the right to charge them in perpetuity for part of their culture? If some corporation had been around to claim ownership of Shakespeare's works when he wrote them would we still be paying some company for the right to stage his plays? Sorry, that's not how it works.

This is not some radical new idea invented by 'leftists' or 'anarchists'. The definition of copyright in the constitution says copyright is limited. They did not recognize 'Intellectual Property', only an incentive to let people benefit from having added something new to the public sphere. (The same goes for patents, btw.) I wonder if the framers of the Constitution would have even rcognized 'art' as copyrightable. They were thinking of useful information like maps. If I'm never gonna see something leave copyright protection in my lifetime, is that 'limited'? Corporate lobbyists have had copyright extended and extended and extended throughout the past century, and it looks like they intend to keep extending it. The corporations plainly want to create a new Feudalism where they get paid forever for material that they DID NOT EVEN CREATE. The artists create it, then sign it away for the 'benefit' of distrubtion and marketting. Then the suits get the majority of the money. They have even tried to shut the artists out completely with this 'work for hire' trick. I don't doubt they intend to pursue that also.

You are falling for a shell-game when you think this is about artists rights. They are hiding behind the artists, exploiting them yet again. There was a hilarious lawsuit by Courtney Love for 'her share' of the damages recovered from Napster, you know. The company lawyers huffed-n-puffed and stiff-armed her. She didn't get a cent of the 'damages' recovered for the unfair exploitation of 'her' music, and neither did anyone else. It all went into the suits' stock options. This is about corporations attempting to create a new feudalism. When honest limits are accepted for copyright again we can worry about enforcement.

[ June 27, 2002, 16:37: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]