Machrone: If I Told You, I'd Have to Kill myself

[pdemondo]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,177999,00.html

[pdemondo]

A GOOD quote form a reference used in the article:

Particularly disturbing to some was the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, which added yet another twenty years to the duration of most copyrights. The bill passed unanimously while the nation was engrossed with impeachment hearings, and few pundits noticed that it was enacted just in time to once again rescue a key Disney mouse from the public domain. Intense lobbying was provided by interests as diverse as Time-Warner, Carlos Santana, and Disney itself, which reportedly made contributions to 18 of the bill's 25 sponsors, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Even worse, this time there was no pretense about some lawmakers' desire to transform the Constitution's time-limited monopoly into a permanent one, as Representative Mary Bono proclaimed on the record, "Sonny wanted the term of copyright protection to last forever, (but) I am informed by staff that such a change would violate the Constitution… As you know, there is also (MPAA President and CEO) Jack Valenti's proposal for term to last forever less one day. Perhaps the Committee may look at that next Congress." Aside from the obvious fact that there's no practical difference between forever and "forever less one day", these statements made it clear just how far copyright law had strayed from its original intent. The Sonny Bono Act guaranteed that virtually no properties (especially those nearing completion of their copyright period) would enter the public domain for twenty more years, and some fear that Congress stands ready to continue extending copyright terms to ensure that no work created after 1923 ever becomes public property (providing a comfortable five-year cushion for even old-timers like Mickey Mouse, who first appeared in 1928).

Copyrights are not WHATEVER the
holder wants them to be. They were intended for the
VERY limited purpose of rewarding the creators for
a LIMITED TIME, which was originally 28 years, but the
media industry is ever-pushing it ever-further towards infinity
and trying to take the hardware industry hostage along the way.