January 15, 2003

The public domain's Dred Scott decision
Argh, so it looks like the public domain is about to die a slow death. Holy crap, is curtailing the public domain the opposite of what copyrights are supposed to be for, or what? Constitution, Article 1, Section 8:

The Congress shall have the power to...promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries...
The court said that "limited times" can be interpreted really, really loosely. 14 years, maybe 28 has become the rest of the author's life plus 90 years. Twenty years ago it was life plus 70 years. How much anyone want to bet that Disney or someone will purchase legislation 20 years from now that makes it life plus 110 years.

Everyone with a website seems pretty worked up about this, which is good. Here are some good starting points:

Lessig notes:
But if there is any good that might come from my loss, let it be the anger and passion that now gets to swell against the unchecked power that the Supreme Court has said Congress has. When the Free Software Foundation, Intel, Phillis Schlafly, Milton Friedman, Ronald Coase, Kenneth Arrow, Brewster Kahle, and hundreds of creators and innovators all stand on one side saying, "this makes no sense," then it makes no sense. Let that be enough to move people to do something about it. Our courts will not.
Now that I've spent some time trying to read everything I can about this I'm super pissed. I'd say that it's enough to get one to drop his current career and become a lawyer, if only I hadn't just watched my dear wife do the same. Time to join the EFF, again.
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