John Stracke wrote: > If you get your copyright extended indefinitely (or put your materials > under copy protection, which amounts to the same thing), then you are > getting that monopoly for nothing; you are reneging on the bargain. As I already said, "I also feel that Disney et al should have been investing in new assets rather than working to lockup old assets" I am/was arguing against the complete emasculation of IPR that Keith called for in his original message: | Let us dedicate ourselves to the worldwide abolishment of the | provisions in intellectual property laws The "provisions" make IPR functional as a currency. We don't solve cash poverty by letting everybody print money whenever they want. That would devalue cash to zero, exacerbating the problem rather than solving it, and would limit any latent value to people with the resources to print billions of dollars on demand. IPR as currency is no different in this regard (although it is different in plenty of other ways), in that the protection mechanisms are what makes it work. To repeat the point, however, I am no believer in infinite protection. -- Eric A. Hall http://www.ehsco.com/ Internet Core Protocols http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/coreprot/