[LINK] Copyright is an artefact designed exclusively to encourage the continuation of a society based on debt

[David Boxall]

On Fri, 24 Jul 2009 at 11:44:16 +1000 Tom Koltai wrote:
> ... I'm so not sure the Australian taxpayer wants to pay for any
> more export and trade indicatives.
What's to say there would be a net cost? I reckon we'd probably profit. 
Costs of the current copyright regime aren't evident to most of us, I guess.

> ... The length of copyright to be minimised to (five years) ...
If Australia tried any such thing on its own, the Yanks would probably 
bomb us into submission. Internationally, there's too much money 
involved for the situation to change within our lifetimes. Over the 
years, too much legislation has been bought.

It does seem somewhat perverse that the period of copyright privilege is 
now longer than that granted in the Statute of Anne. Given that the 
world moves faster now than it did four centuries ago, that period 
should logically be much shorter. Where law or money is involved though, 
logic has little place - and here we have both.
   
-- 
David Boxall                         | "Cheer up" they said.
                                     | "Things could be worse."
http://david.boxall.name             | So I cheered up and,
                                     | Sure enough, things got worse.
                                     |              --Murphy's musing