[LINK] Theft, copyright, larceny... (was: In other news....)

Karl Auer kauer at biplane.com.au
Tue Jun 26 09:55:14 AEST 2007


On Tue, 2007-06-26 at 09:10 +1000, Rick Welykochy wrote:
> Let's not lose sight of the original reason that Patent and Copyright laws
> were enacted: to protect the originator of the work for a period of time
> so they could financially benefit from their work and be encouraged to
> produce more of same. And to be financially able to do same.

You've forgotten the other half: To ensure that society benefited from
the work by it eventually belonging to everyone, generally some small
time after the death of the author (NOT the copyright holder).

> Walt Dizzy-knee International Incorporated acquiring the rights to
> the Wigglies Grand Dance Tune and then enforcing their "ownership" of
> the tune through Copyright Law certainly is *not in the original spirit
> of the law*. The law was meant to protect Joe Bloggs who originally
> wrote the tune in the first place. The interpretation of that law has been
> changed and preened to allow transfers of these rights and to support
> the interests of huge media empires. Hardly the original intent of the law.

Hum. Yes and no. Joe Bloggs benefits by getting money from Disney.
Disney then distributes the tune all over the world, digitally or in the
form of licensed performances. If they don't, they get no return on
their investment in the tune. So the tune reaches many, many more people
(arguably) than Joe Bloggs ever would have. And at the end of the
copyright period, the world owns the tune. That's the theory.

In practice, copyright periods are extending further and further. Unlike
human creators, corporations live forever, so they have a strong
interest in their copyrights living forever. That's where it has all
gone wrong. Well, one of the several places it has all gone wrong.

Regards, K.


-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)




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