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

[Kevanf1]

On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 10:46:32 +0000, Stuart Langridge <sil at kryogenix.org> wrote:
> On 11/1/2005, "Kevanf1" <kevanf1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >Adding to this, I will say that I have been angry about the whole area
> >of copyright for much longer than I have known about the DRM or even
> >the whole Open Source ethos.  It all started when I realised -
> >literally decades ago - that a certain Mr Disney was allowed to use
> >old stories and then place copyright on them just through a few minor
> >alterations.  Ok, that's glossing over it in a big way, but it
> >intrigued and angered me at the time.  I think I was in my early teens
> >then :-)
> 
> Yep. And you'll notice that, despite Disney having made a goodly
> propertion of their money from making films of old tales which are now
> in the public domain, they have furiously (and successfully) lobbied to
> have the copyright dates extended for longer so that we can't do the
> same with any of _their_ property, like Mickey Mouse...
> 
> Aq.
> 
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Funny you should say that...

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.

I have to say that I have found this very interesting and it has given
me a big insight into the whole software patent/copyright issue (yes,
I have signed the Thank Poland letter by the way).


-- 
Take care.
Kevan Farmer

34 Hill Street
Cheslyn Hay
Staffordshire
WS6 7HR