[II./JG1_Klaiber]

Originally Posted by SlipBall

Well our founding fathers decided to put this protection in the Constitution, and I think that it was a good idea...The problem is that our congress has a long history of going back into the law, and changing it, that is to say extending the time frame of the law. That to me is a bad idea


"A growing number of academics and legal experts are saying that the copyright renewals are a violation of the Constitution. "The copyright extension bill is a rotten idea for the American people," said Dennis Karjala, a professor of intellectual property law at Arizona State University and a leader of the opposition to extension."

I agree. Copyrights are meant to protect intellectual property and are therefore good so long as this protection is not abused.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/200...23105835.shtml

But, really, the bigger point was made by [Prof James] Boyle, via Twitter, where he noted that we are "the first generation to deny our own culture to ourselves and to drive the point home, he notes that no work created during your lifetime will, without conscious action by its creator, become available for you to build upon. For people who don't recognize the importance of the public domain and the nature of creativity, perhaps this seems like no big deal. But if you look back through history, you realize what an incredibly big deal it is -- and how immensely stifling this is on our culture. And then you realize this is all done under a law whose sole purpose is to "promote the progress" and you begin to wonder how this happened. It goes back beyond Mickey Mouse, certainly, but Mickey and Disney have been huge drivers of this attempt to stifle new culture, all in the name of limiting competition for itself. What a shame.