Dragaera

Artificial release dates and online publishing

Fri Dec 13 19:35:38 PST 2002

On Fri, Dec 13, 2002 at 06:56:31PM -0800, Frank Mayhar <frank at exit.com> wrote:
> Sigh.  Scott, do you know who Eric Eldred is?  Do you have any idea of just
> _why_ he (among others) is challenging the Sonny Bono Act?  I'll give you a
> hint:  It's not to "pump out t-shirts" with Mickey Mouse on them.  (In fact,
> it doesn't have anything to do with Disney at all, Disney is just the
> company that financed the Bono Act.)
> 
> Disney has built on the works of the past.  Cinderella, Treasure Island,
> The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, on and on and on.  All in the
> public domain, none of which they had to pay a dime in royalties for.
> And yet, if things continue the way they are, no one will _ever_ be able
> to build on _Disney's_ work.
> 
> That's the point.

Guys, there are two arguments here.

One revolves around whether ANY copyright is bad.

The other revolves around how much copyright is desirable,
given that having some such protection is good.

Scott's arguing the former, Frank and others the latter.

I suggest you resync on what argument you want to have before 
continuing.

-- 
Matthew Hunter (matthew at infodancer.org)
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