Breakfast with a presidential candidate

Ken D'Ambrosio ken at flyingtoasters.net
Tue Jan 6 10:08:11 EST 2004


Mark Komarinski wrote:

> As a high level idea, a sane IP policy would be really nice.
>
>Copyright extension overhaul, more money to PTO to do real research on
>upcoming patents, remove patents on software, and repeal that stupid DMCA.
>
>In all honesty, I think Disney should be able to keep their trademark on
>Mickey Mouse and "Steamboat Willie".  Something maybe like treating
>copyrights like trademarks after a certain amount of time would be
>appropriate.  This would allow Disney to keep their copyrights, but let
>other IP (old ROMs, for example) to drop into the public domain.
>  
>
*wades in with more than a little trepidation*  Sorry, but I have to 
disagree.  I think copyrights are all well and good -- really!  But I 
think that, eventually, all copyrighted material should enter the public 
domain.  Let's be honest: how much $$$ is (say) Disney making off of 
Steamboat Williie?  Or -anything- over 50 years old?  [Oh.  Sorry.  _90_ 
years old.  Thanks, Sonny.]  I guess classics like Snow White will 
always be a revenue generator to some extent, but I bet they pale in 
comparison to the next Pixar release.  And the current 90 years (or 70 
for individuals), is too much.  Let's look at it from the perspective of 
a writer (say, Stephen King).  He dies at the average white male age of 
78.  70 years _LATER_, his stuff becomes public domain.  In other words 
(some assumptions involved here), his great-great-great-grand-children 
will never reap the fiscal rewards from the reselling of his copyrighted 
works.  Bah!  Copyrights are meant to protect the writer, and 
(presumably) his immediate family; that's why they were initially so 
much shorter.  Due to bozos like Bono, however, and the industries 
involved, they got much, much longer, with ever-diminishing rewards, but 
like Smaug, refuse to give even a trinket.
See http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/july-dec02/copyright.html 
for some add'l info.

$.02 + S&H,

-Ken



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