On Fri, Dec 13, 2002 at 11:25:30PM -0500, Scott Ingram <singram at videotron.ca> wrote: > Now, as for building on Disney's work... > I suppose that given copyright is a right and all (You'll have to excuse me, > as I am Canadian, and not very familiar with your constitution) then sure, > copyrights should die eventually... perhaps 50 years after the death of the > creator? Our constitution says that congress shall have the power to establish copyrights "for a limited term". It doesn't define "limited". (Some people are challenging the extension on the grounds that "infinite extension" is in fact not "limited", even if each individual law extending it is for a limited term). > I'm not American, I don't hold Disney or Mickey Mouse in huge esteem, > however I do have to recognize the fact that Mickey Mouse is a powerful > symbol for the company, and it could be a disaster if/when the Mouse enters > the public domain and people start making the mouse associated with things > other than family, fun, and rampant consumerism. > > Oh well, maybe they shouldn't invest so much money in symbols they're > destined to lose control of. Exactly. -- Matthew Hunter (matthew at infodancer.org) Public Key: http://matthew.infodancer.org/public_key.txt Homepage: http://matthew.infodancer.org/index.jsp Politics: http://www.triggerfinger.org/index.jsp