[Wolves] Microsoft licensing - (continued from the LUG meating)

[Kevanf1]

On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 13:29:51 +0000, Stuart Langridge <sil at kryogenix.org> wrote:
> On 11/1/2005, "Kevanf1" <kevanf1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> >On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 10:46:32 +0000, Stuart Langridge <sil at kryogenix.org> wrote:
> >The actual article I was reading is in The Linux Handbook 9 the first
> >edition, not sure about the newer one).  It states exactly that about
> >the Mickey rat pictures and portrayals.  The US government have
> >successively added to the time out for copyright a few times in the
> >past few years.  I think the latest one has been to state that
> >copyright exists for infinity minus one day.  They did this to avoid
> >the argument that infinity is unreal - I'm not going inot the maths
> >:-)))  There is, or was, a defence being compiled to show that this
> >minus one day business was equally as stupid.
> >
> >How do the guys at Project Gutenberg get around the copyright thing?
> >Surely with the ever increasing lifespan of copyright in the US they
> >must be falling foul of copyright laws.  I did read that even material
> >that was now in the public domain had been taken back into copyright
> >due to the expansion of copyright law.
> 
> Copyright is not infinitely extended, or even extended to infinity minus
> one day. However, Disney and similar large companies seem to want to
> freeze it so that nothing after about 1927 or so ever goes into the
> public domain (so that Mickey Mouse isn't PD). The American
> constitution specifically states that copyright shall not extend in
> perpetuity on anything. 

Ah, this is what is printed - it may be incorrect but this is exactly
what it says:
==============================================
'The US Constitution prevents indefinite copyright so they say
copyright should last forever minus a day.  Since infinity minus one
is also infinity, it demonstrates that they should perhaps buy a few
more mathematicians and fewer politicians.'

>From an article titled You, Copyright and The Law by David Harris,
page 114 The Complete Linux Handbook, dated 2003
==============================================
Very interesting article especially the bit about the Sonny Bono act
that supposedly harmonised US copyright law with EU regulations.  Even
though there are no EU regulations like it....though I suspect the EU
reg's are now being brought in to match the US ones.  It stinks.

-- 
Take care.
Kevan Farmer

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Cheslyn Hay
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