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The Forces Of Darkness... - 1/16/2003 12:13:53 AM   
SLAAKATTAK

 

Posts: 42
Joined: 1/8/2003
From: EARTH
Status: offline 		:( :( :( :( 1-15-03

AS I SUSPECTED THE WICKED ESTABLISHMENT WITH ITS USUAL FAVORITISM BIAS HAS RULED AGAIN IN FAVOR OF THE STATUS QUO. THIS IS A DARK DAY FOR SLAAKERY. I CAN ONLY PRAY FOR GODS INTERVENTION TO SAVE US FROM THE EVIL OF THESE LAWS THAT PROTECT GLUTTONS FROM BANKRUPTING US ALL.


WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld
longstanding copyrights designed to protect the profits of songs, books
and cartoon characters, a huge victory for Disney and other companies.

The 7-2 ruling, while not unexpected, was a
blow to Internet publishers and others who
wanted to make old books available online
and use the likenesses of a Mickey Mouse
cartoon and other old creations without
paying high royalties.

Hundreds of thousands of books, movies
and songs were close to being released into
the public domain when Congress extended
the copyright by 20 years in 1998.

Justices said the copyright extension,
named for the late Rep. Sonny Bono,
R-Calif., was not unconstitutional.

The Constitution "gives Congress wide
leeway to prescribe `limited times' for
copyright protection and allows Congress to
secure the same level and duration of
protection for all copyright holders, present
and future," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
(news - web sites) said from the bench.

A contrary ruling would have cost entertainment giants like The Walt
Disney Co. and AOL Time Warner Inc. hundreds of millions of dollars.
AOL Time Warner had said that would threaten copyrights for such
movies as "Casablanca," "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gone With the
Wind."

Also at risk of expiration was protection for the version of Mickey Mouse
portrayed in Disney's earliest films, such as 1928's "Steamboat Willie."

Congress passed the copyright law after heavy lobbying from
companies with lucrative copyrights.

GRRRRRR!!!!!!!!! THIS AINT OVER YET!!!
SLAAKATTAK

COPYRIGHT AND PATENT LAW IS TYRANNY!!!! LONG LIVE THOMAS PAINE!!!!
Post #: 1
- 1/16/2003 12:49:59 AM   
Les_the_Sarge_9_1

 

Posts: 4392
Joined: 12/29/2000
Status: offline 		Oh well, people can't read books online.

I still prefer to read real books myself. But then, I guess being a board gamer that should not shock many hehe.

I feel sad whenever a software maker ends up getting screwed though. Anything that starts as digital and stays as digital, is after all just digital material.

I am happy to report though, that after running numerous test searches periodically for popular wargame titles on Kazaa, I never find wargames.

You guys can all take a bow, we are a largely noble hobby.

_____________________________

I LIKE that my life bothers them,
Why should I be the only one bothered by it eh.

(in reply to SLAAKATTAK)
Post #: 2
- 1/16/2003 4:13:02 AM   
Veldor


Posts: 1531
Joined: 12/29/2002
From: King's Landing
Status: offline 		Everyone wants everything to be free until they publish or invent something... Laws like that protect the little guy just as much as the giant.

Sure Microsoft saves/makes even more money by copyright protection than say Matrix Games, but it doesn't mean Matrix Games doesn't benefit from them as well.

And Kazaa is pirating for the masses. We've already established wargaming is not currently something participated in or desired by the masses, thus its not found there...

Doesn't mean they aren't on newsgroups, or available through other more "underground" resources.

People will always pirate Software, Movies, and Music.. The lame justification that the producers of such material already have enough money is exactly what drives prices up and prompts more people to "steal" it all in the first place... Which in turn only helps smaller publishers be stomped out of business.

If you had written a book, or written a piece of software, or made a movie, wouldn't YOU feel YOU were still entitled to be the only one to PROFIT from it? I mean however "free" someone wants to make something on the web, the web inherantly makes you money, free stuff means people visiting your sites, which means money from banner clicks and so on...

Piracy/Bootlegging of Microsoft titles in China has reached 99% for individuals.. It almost makes you wonder why MS even puts out a Chinese version of their products...

Spend a couple hundred or thousand hours of your time laboring on something and then let me profit from it.. I certainly won't mind... but I'm guessing you would..

(in reply to SLAAKATTAK)
Post #: 3
- 1/16/2003 4:15:19 AM   
Les_the_Sarge_9_1

 

Posts: 4392
Joined: 12/29/2000
Status: offline 		Veldor's comments there are impossible to add to, so I will settle for saying "what he said".

_____________________________

I LIKE that my life bothers them,
Why should I be the only one bothered by it eh.

(in reply to SLAAKATTAK)
Post #: 4
- 1/16/2003 8:32:38 AM   
SLAAKMAN


Posts: 2725
Joined: 7/24/2002
Status: offline 		MR. VELDOR,
YOUR OBSERVATIONS ARE AS DOGMATIC AS BOLSHEVISM. LETS TAKE A HYPOTHETICAL; SHOULD MILITARY TECHNOLOGY BE PATENTED ALSO? SO IF TOTALITARIAN CHINA INVENTS A WEAPON SUCH AS THE STARSHIP ENTERPRISE, THEN SHOULD WE RESPECT THEIR PATENTS AS WELL, EVEN IF IT MEANS OUR ANNIHILATION? HARDLY. I WILL RESIST EVIL ANYWHERE IN THE GALAXY UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES AT ALL! AND FURTHERMORE, THE LEGAL SYSTEM OF ANY NATION IS NOT GOING TO DEFINE WHAT IS OR ISNT MORAL. ONLY GOD CAN DO THAT. END COPYRIGHT AND PATENT LAW FOREVER!
LONG LIVE THE FIGHTERS! LONG LIVE MUAH DEIB!
BE SLAAK

(in reply to SLAAKATTAK)
Post #: 5
- 1/16/2003 8:53:19 AM   
Veldor


Posts: 1531
Joined: 12/29/2002
From: King's Landing
Status: offline 		[QUOTE]Originally posted by SLAAKMAN
[B]MR. VELDOR,
YOUR OBSERVATIONS ARE AS DOGMATIC AS BOLSHEVISM. LETS TAKE A HYPOTHETICAL; SHOULD MILITARY TECHNOLOGY BE PATENTED ALSO? SO IF TOTALITARIAN CHINA INVENTS A WEAPON SUCH AS THE STARSHIP ENTERPRISE, THEN SHOULD WE RESPECT THEIR PATENTS AS WELL, EVEN IF IT MEANS OUR ANNIHILATION? HARDLY. I WILL RESIST EVIL ANYWHERE IN THE GALAXY UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES AT ALL! AND FURTHERMORE, THE LEGAL SYSTEM OF ANY NATION IS NOT GOING TO DEFINE WHAT IS OR ISNT MORAL. ONLY GOD CAN DO THAT. END COPYRIGHT AND PATENT LAW FOREVER!
LONG LIVE THE FIGHTERS! LONG LIVE MUAH DEIB!
BE SLAAK [/B][/QUOTE]

An old book or song is hardly a weapon thats going to destroy us. Your trying to take something at an individuals level and escalate it to the level of international politics to justify getting what you want for free.

But either way to answer your question basically, first we have to seperate copyrights from patents.. They are afterall VASTLY different things..

A copyright protects literary or artistic work, and such other "compositions".. generally as a whole.. So the thought that you should allow someone else to "reproduce" and "distribute" your work for their own sole benefit or profit is ludicrous.

A patent however, generally protects small pieces or processes of a larger product. Letting a patent expire does not let another replicate the "quality" of your design or work, nor the extra "experience" you have producing it and so on.. You merely get a temporary monopoly on that small portion of your inventive idea.

And in both cases thats how it should be. There are always exceptions.. To use an exception as a way to justify obliterating the whole concept is anarchisticly naive at best.

If copyrights didnt exist... NO ONE would write books, NO ONE would compose music, NO ONE would make movies, NO ONE would make games..

What would be the point? Would everyone do it just cuz that was their job? Even if that sort of Communistic approach were taken... anything produced would lack creativity and inspiration..

Now there is nothing inherantly wrong with wanting things free.. Don't we all.. But don't try to justify it with some twisted web of logic....

(in reply to SLAAKATTAK)
Post #: 6
- 1/16/2003 9:53:00 AM   
SLAAKATTAK

 

Posts: 42
Joined: 1/8/2003
From: EARTH
Status: offline 		VELDOR.....HORSESCHIT!! NOW THAT YOU'VE DISINFORMED US WITH A MYOPIC DEFINITION OF THE SO-CALLED "TRUE MEANING" OF THE DIFFERENCES OF COPYRIGHT AND PATENT LAWS, I WANT TO POINT OUT THAT THE GEO-POLITICAL VIEWPOINT IS WHATS AT STAKE HERE AND NOT SOME PODUNK, SMALL TOWN MISER POPSICLE STAND THAT YOUR IMPLYING. ITS A LINE OF PHONY MACHIAVELLIAN PROPAGANDA TO ACTUALLY CLAIM THAT THESE LAWS OR ANY "LEGAL SYSTEM" ACTUALLY BENEFITS THE SO-CALLED "LITTLE GUY" AND HIS ABILITY TO CREATE. THIS "TWISTED WEB" OF LOGIC AS YOU TERMED IT APPLIES TO THE LEGAL INFRASTRUCTURE OF COPYRIGHT AND PATENT LAW 100 TIMES MORE THAN THE IDEA OF SCRAPPING THE MONOLITHIC CONCEPT ALTOGETHER. HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE MY VIEWPOINT TO BE A "COMMUNISTIC" SOLUTION!!! AND I SUPPOSE THE BOLSHEVIK, PRIVILEGED, BUREAUCRATIC INFRASTRUCTURE IN PLACE NOW IS SATISFACTORY TO YOU? AFTER ALL YOUR AN AGRARIAN POPULIST YOURSELF ARENT YOU??? HAR HAR. IM NOT AN ANCHARCHIST OR A BOLSHEVIK UNLIKE YOU, IM A CHRISTIAN SLAAKNARCHIST AND DO NOT CONFUSE THE TWO. NO BULLSCHIT, SECULAR, PHONY, GROTESQUELY CORRUPT, OUTRAGESLY EXPENSIVE LEGAL SYSTEM IS GOING TO DEFINE THE RULES FOR ME!!! EVER!!! :mad:
SLAAKATTAK

GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!!!!!!!!

(in reply to SLAAKATTAK)
Post #: 7
- 1/16/2003 10:23:05 AM   
Veldor


Posts: 1531
Joined: 12/29/2002
From: King's Landing
Status: offline 		[QUOTE]Originally posted by SLAAKATTAK
[B]VELDOR.....HORSESCHIT!! NOW THAT YOU'VE DISINFORMED US WITH A MYOPIC DEFINITION OF THE SO-CALLED "TRUE MEANING" OF THE DIFFERENCES OF COPYRIGHT AND PATENT LAWS, I WANT TO POINT OUT THAT THE GEO-POLITICAL VIEWPOINT IS WHATS AT STAKE HERE AND NOT SOME PODUNK, SMALL TOWN MISER POPSICLE STAND THAT YOUR IMPLYING. ITS A LINE OF PHONY MACHIAVELLIAN PROPAGANDA TO ACTUALLY CLAIM THAT THESE LAWS OR ANY "LEGAL SYSTEM" ACTUALLY BENEFITS THE SO-CALLED "LITTLE GUY" AND HIS ABILITY TO CREATE. THIS "TWISTED WEB" OF LOGIC AS YOU TERMED IT APPLIES TO THE LEGAL INFRASTRUCTURE OF COPYRIGHT AND PATENT LAW 100 TIMES MORE THAN THE IDEA OF SCRAPPING THE MONOLITHIC CONCEPT ALTOGETHER. HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE MY VIEWPOINT TO BE A "COMMUNISTIC" SOLUTION!!! AND I SUPPOSE THE BOLSHEVIK, PRIVILEGED, BUREAUCRATIC INFRASTRUCTURE IN PLACE NOW IS SATISFACTORY TO YOU? AFTER ALL YOUR AN AGRARIAN POPULIST YOURSELF ARENT YOU??? HAR HAR. IM NOT AN ANCHARCHIST OR A BOLSHEVIK UNLIKE YOU, IM A CHRISTIAN SLAAKNARCHIST AND DO NOT CONFUSE THE TWO. NO BULLSCHIT, SECULAR, PHONY, GROTESQUELY CORRUPT, OUTRAGESLY EXPENSIVE LEGAL SYSTEM IS GOING TO DEFINE THE RULES FOR ME!!! EVER!!! :mad:
SLAAKATTAK

GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!!!!!!!! [/B][/QUOTE]

You use big words, yet you type in all caps. Surely you know that typing in all caps instantly discredits you in the online world. Your points and statements only look more radical and misguided (And of course very very childish). I'd guess you to be about 15, 19 tops.. but the same text in proper case... who would know. Note I'm trying to give you a piece of advise here, yet Im sure one such as yourself is appalled at the very idea that anyone else has something of value to tell them.

Matrix is a little guy. They wouldn't be putting out games like Uncommon Valor if anyone was allowed to download them freely, distribute them freely, etc. etc. So laws ARE necessary to protect them.

No its not a perfect system, certainly favors some over others.. Any system would. But it does protect the little guys too, as well as the big ones. What work have you ever created??

(in reply to SLAAKATTAK)
Post #: 8
- 1/16/2003 2:43:53 PM   
SLAAKATTAK

 

Posts: 42
Joined: 1/8/2003
From: EARTH
Status: offline 		REGARDING VELDOR;

LISTEN TO THIS ARROGANT GREENHORN LECTURE ME ON THE "VIRTUES OF THE SYSTEM"!!! HAHAHAHA! SILENCE YOU ESTABLISHMENT LACKEY! I KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ADVICE AND CHARACTER ASSASSINATION AND I DIDNT ASK TO BE QUANTIFIED BY SOME SMUG, SECULAR, CONFORMIST SUCH AS YOU AND I DONT WANT IT! FURTHERMORE WITHOUT THE TYRANNY OF COPYRIGHT AND PATENT LAW EVERYONE COULD SHARE THE IDEAS CREATED BY GOD AS HE INTENDED. INSTEAD WE HAVE THIS ABOMINATION THAT IS WIELDED LIKE EXCALIBER TO SQUASH THOSE WHO TRY TO GET A PIECE OF THE PIE BY LAWYERINFESTED LOBBIES THAT SERVE ONLY SPECIAL INTERESTS THAT GREEDILY HORDE EVERYTHING TO THEMSELVES!! EXTREME INDIVIDUALISM AND RAW COMPETITION IS THE LAW OF THIS LAND AND IT BETTER CHANGE OR ELSE!! RADICAL?? HELL THATS AN UNDERSTATEMENT! I BELIEVE IN THE COMPLETE ERADICATION OF THIS ENTIRE PLANET BY GOD ON JUDGENMENT DAY! THEN ALL OF THE ARROGANT, AMORAL, ABUSIVE, SELF-DELUDING FREAKS OF NATURE INFESTING HUMAN HISTORY WILL BE COMPLETELY DESTROYED AND ALONG WITH IT THE PHONY CONCEPT OF HUMAN AUTHORITY AND LAW WILL BE FOREVER AND UTTERLY ANNIHILATED! YEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAA!!!!!!:mad: :p :p :p
SLAAKATTAK


CAPS- IF THIS IS A PROBLEM DIAL 1900-EAT-$HIT!
AS FOR YOUR AGE VELDOR, I SPECULATE IT MATCHES YOUR SHOE SIZE.:eek:

(in reply to SLAAKATTAK)
Post #: 9
- 1/16/2003 9:20:15 PM   
Les_the_Sarge_9_1

 

Posts: 4392
Joined: 12/29/2000
Status: offline 		If Slaak wasn't so patently rediculous sounding (hmm interesting use of the word patent I must say hehe:) ), then I might come to Veldor's aid.

But I am assuming Veldor is a bright enough chap to realise Slaak is pulling his leg. I just hope Slaak doesn't pull it off by mistake:D .

Remember kids, no running with pointed sticks.

_____________________________

I LIKE that my life bothers them,
Why should I be the only one bothered by it eh.

(in reply to SLAAKATTAK)
Post #: 10
- 1/16/2003 11:49:24 PM   
jnier


Posts: 402
Joined: 2/18/2002
Status: offline 		[QUOTE]Originally posted by Veldor
[B]Everyone wants everything to be free until they publish or invent something... Laws like that protect the little guy just as much as the giant.
[/B][/QUOTE]

Unforntunately, the law in question does very little to protect the "little guy." Thelaw is unjust because it retroactively extends existing copyrights. So the people who are protected by the extension of copyright law (which has been extended 11 times since the orginal copyright act in 1790) are those people (and coporations) who have already grown quite wealthy from existing copyrights (like George Gershwin's Estate and Disney Corp).

The original intent of copyright law was to encourge new ideas, inventiveness, and creativity by giving inventors and authors a temporary monopoly on their new idea so that they would profit from it. Current copyright law does the opposite by stifling creativity and preventing new material from entering the public domain.

Giving Disney an extra twenty more year to make a buck off of Mickey Mouse does nothing to encourage the creation of new ideas - that's what copyright is supposed to be about, at least according to the Consitution.

(in reply to SLAAKATTAK)
Post #: 11
- 1/17/2003 12:19:24 AM   
Les_the_Sarge_9_1

 

Posts: 4392
Joined: 12/29/2000
Status: offline 		Disney was once a nobody. But through his efforts, he is now a mega somebody.
Well actually he is dead now.
But if he were still alive, what right do i or anyone have to say, sorry but I want to be a somebody too, but with your hard work paying for it.

Capitalism is about making money (last time I looked).

Most of today's mega rich were schmucks that thought being poor sucked (and it does). So they embarked on becoming unpoor.
That is the beauty of the system, you can be poor if you insist (but the rich will insist on being rich, not surprisingly).

If I come up with a cool idea, and in the process I become filthy rich, cool. But I should at least have to put out the same effort the other rich dudes did ie think up something and let it make me rich.

I hate Bill Gates for many reasons, but I don't resent him for being rich. Nor do I resent him for playing the money game. He is a nasty guy, but capitalism is a game that uses no protective gear. It's not for those that don't want to get roughed up.

Tomorrow I could be the next inventor of something as revolutionary as Windows, or just someone that creates some dumb junk toy called Rubiks cube.

That is what capitalism is about. Making money, and nothing else. You can be a nice guy capitalist or a mean nasty one. But if you are playing by the official rules, then you can't say you have to care if some don't like your game.

You could always go live somewhere like Russia eh. Wonderful country from a terrain standpoint. The people are likely the same as people everywhere. But most of a century of Communism sure showed what good there is to some of the alternatives to capitalism.

If someone doesn't want to share their patent or copywrite, who am I to say it is wrong. If in doing so they have harmed the race, well I guess that just means their greed was ill advised.
If I made a device that could better mankind, odds are I would like some profit, but in the end I would just give it away (if I could).
But to bitch and whine because someone won't let me exploit someone else's efforts at a later date, over an item that has nothing o do with the safety or betterment or protection of manind, that is just lazy.

I say go and make yer own damned inventions.

_____________________________

I LIKE that my life bothers them,
Why should I be the only one bothered by it eh.

(in reply to SLAAKATTAK)
Post #: 12
- 1/17/2003 12:46:44 AM   
jnier


Posts: 402
Joined: 2/18/2002
Status: offline 		Les,

Capilalism is about money, but copyright is NOT, at least according to the U.S. Constitution. Here's the copyright clause from the Consitution:

Article I, Section 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;"

The view of the framers of the Constitution (Jefferson in particular) is that NO ONE has an [B]inherent[/B] right to monopolize an idea or invention. Jefferson was worried that such monopolies would threaten the free exchange of ideas neccessary for a Democracy.

According to the constitution, monopolies on ideas (i.e. copyrights) and inventions are only a means to end, that end being the "progress of science and the useful arts." And copyrights are not granted because people have a natural right to control their ideas and creations, but because some financial reward should be present to encourage creativity.

The Consitution, and its framers, were very clear that the purpose of copyright was NOT to make people rich. Instead the pupose of copyright was to enourgage innovation by allowing for the possibility of becoming rich.

(in reply to SLAAKATTAK)
Post #: 13
- 1/17/2003 12:53:02 AM   
SLAAKATTAK

 

Posts: 42
Joined: 1/8/2003
From: EARTH
Status: offline 		JNIER- VERY WELL PUT. THANX.

SARGE UTTERED; "I say go and make yer own damned inventions."

I WILL. AND I WILL USE ANY IDEA TO CREATE THAT IDEA IF NEED BE. I REFUSE TO LET HORDING MISERS SUBVERT PROGRESS.

SARGE I CAN BITCH IF I WANT TO. NAH NAH NAH NAH NAH. AFTER ALL THERES ALOT TO BITCH ABOUT AND IM JUST THE RIGHT BITCH TO BITCH ABOUT IT. BITCH BITCH BITCH BITCH.......:p :p :p :p

SLAAKATTAK

(in reply to SLAAKATTAK)
Post #: 14
- 1/17/2003 1:35:50 AM   
Les_the_Sarge_9_1

 

Posts: 4392
Joined: 12/29/2000
Status: offline 		jnier, well stated. I don't pretend to fully know all the ins and outs of the myriad laws of this subject that's for sure.

Slaak you stay being slaak, I like it that way heheh:)

_____________________________

I LIKE that my life bothers them,
Why should I be the only one bothered by it eh.

(in reply to SLAAKATTAK)
Post #: 15
- 1/17/2003 6:59:30 AM   
Veldor


Posts: 1531
Joined: 12/29/2002
From: King's Landing
Status: offline 		No stiffling of creativity comes from not allowing past publications of literature to be freely distributed over the internet for the website owner's direct profit..

And "Harry Potter" was allowed to be written, despite copying many many ideas, if not all of them from previous works.. Ideas get borrowed all the time.. Similar things get done, but EXACT copying of a work has no justification... Nor does free distribution of it..

(in reply to SLAAKATTAK)
Post #: 16
- 1/18/2003 5:06:58 AM   
SLAAKATTAK

 

Posts: 42
Joined: 1/8/2003
From: EARTH
Status: offline 		"Similar things get done, but EXACT copying of a work has no justification... Nor does free distribution of it.."

THATS NOT THE ISSUE. THE POINT IM MAKING IS THAT THE LEGAL SYSTEM IS FAR MORE OF A BURDEN AND DOES NOT PROTECT PROPERTY. HORDING IS A SERIOUS ECONOMIC PROBLEM AND THE LEGAL SYSTEM DOES MORE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THIS PROBLEM AND NOT ENOUGH TO SOLVE IT.

(in reply to SLAAKATTAK)
Post #: 17
- 1/18/2003 5:14:49 AM   
Les_the_Sarge_9_1

 

Posts: 4392
Joined: 12/29/2000
Status: offline 		The solution is obvious, abolish money, make everyone able to live without needing cash.

That way a person can create for the love of creating, and there would be no need to worry beyond getting proper credit for purposes of occolades.

Ohh yeah right, everyone worships money.

Guess I will have to settle for, "tough luck you don't like hoarding". The laws are not interested in the people, they are interested in the contiuation of the law.

You expect the legal system to make sense? You are obviously an alien and not from this planet heheh:)

_____________________________

I LIKE that my life bothers them,
Why should I be the only one bothered by it eh.

(in reply to SLAAKATTAK)
Post #: 18
- 1/18/2003 5:37:52 AM   
SLAAKATTAK

 

Posts: 42
Joined: 1/8/2003
From: EARTH
Status: offline 		IT IS TRUE THAT I HAVE BEEN MAROONED UPON THIS CRAZY COMEDY PLANET SARGE. I WAS JUST HOPING THE HOSTS WOULDVE BEEN A LITTLE MORE POLITE.:p :p
SLAAK :D

(in reply to SLAAKATTAK)
Post #: 19
- 1/18/2003 5:46:21 AM   
jnier


Posts: 402
Joined: 2/18/2002
Status: offline 		[QUOTE]Originally posted by Veldor
[B]No stiffling of creativity comes from not allowing past publications of literature to be freely distributed over the internet for the website owner's direct profit..
[/B][/QUOTE]
Of course this stifles creativity. If something that should be in the public domain is prevented from entering the public domain due to repreated copyright extensions, than access to that work IS limited. People who might ordinarily read that work, and be influenced by it in their own creative works, may not because of the cost involved.

And there is a real cost to society as well. United Airlines had to pay George Gershwin's estate $500 million dollars to use "Rhaposody in Blue" in their commercials. Most of Gershwin's work would have soon entered the public domain if not for copyright extensions. So if another company wants to use the song they will have to fork over $500 million. That cost will almost certainly be passed along to consumers.

[QUOTE][B]
Similar things get done, but EXACT copying of a work has no justification... Nor does free distribution of it.. [/B][/QUOTE]
It depends on whether the copying encourages or discourages innovation. Exact copying and distribution of a work that is in the public domain can certainly be justified. The person who created the work (by the time it enters the public domain) has already reaped the majority of the financial rewards for their work and now it can be freely copied and distributed to anyone, so that others can borrow parts of it, or impove on it, or flat out copy it.

That is precisely why a rich public domain (which is threatened by repeated copyright extensions) is so important. Placing works in the public domain allows others to use them freely in their own newer works. Disney is the best example of this. Many of Disney's most famous cartoons (e.g. Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan) were made, because the original work was in the public domain. There would have been no Alice in Wonderland cartoon were it not for the public domain.

However, copying of a new book or latest computer game certainly could not be justified and would be simply wrong, because this would discourage innovation. The creator of the work is not receiving anything for the new idea.

(in reply to SLAAKATTAK)
Post #: 20
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