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

kev adams kev at magicmoon.co.uk
Wed Jan 12 18:53:49 GMT 2005


On Tuesday 11 Jan 2005 13:29, Stuart Langridge wrote:
> 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. Lawrence Lessig ran a big court case last year
> where he argued before the Supreme Court that bumping the length of
> copyright up by 20 years every time we got close to it was essentially
> the same thing as copyright-in-perpetuity, but he lost.

I seem to remember that it used to be something like 70 years after the death 
of the author - then work would pass in to the public domain.  This explains 
why so many classics of literature are in the public domain now.  Publishing 
houses weren't worried by the same technology at the start of the 20th 
century as they are now.  

Of course corporate lobbying power is also scarily efficient now too!



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