Quote:
Originally Posted by GatorB
bad example because the founding fathers never made a law saying you have to give up your house after a certain set of years. They DID in fact make copyright time LIMITED.
US Constitution Article One Section 8 clause 8.
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;
So we went from
Copyright Act of 1790 - established U.S. copyright with term of 14 years with 14-year renewal
Of course now we have
Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 - extended terms to 95/120 years or life plus 70 years
Expect an extension of copyright even more within the next 10 years since Disney's copyright on Steamboat Willie runs out in 2021. Hell they might as well fuck over the American people by declaring "public domain" dead. Since that's where it's obviously headed.
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This is one that I disagree with the founding fathers on. Say you write a mind blowing piece of music that will be studied for generations to come. They can still study it, they can still perform it and it is still around to promote and progress music if it is still under copyright.
But let me ask you this. Would the world be a better, more artistic place if Steamboat Willie were in the public domain?
Maybe they could modify it so that after a certain number of years the original creator still controls the copyright, but with less actual control. For example someone could put your book on a website for anyone to read or upload your music to a website for anyone to listen too as long as they weren't trying to sell it or make a profit off of it. This would allow anyone who wants to use these works for personal knowledge or education or even just for personal enjoyment to do so, but it would keep someone form mass publishing your book again and making money off it without you or your estate getting a fair cut.