On Wed August 16 2006 16:34, Lee Revell wrote: > > It's true that copyright holders managed to get the laws > > changed in most places to fit what they would like reality > > to be, but reality remains unchanged. Copying is still just > > copying, not moving. > By "managed to get the laws changed" are you referring to the > US constitution? English common law from the 18th century? > Copyright didn't start with the DMCA you know... I don't think that the DMCA has anything to do with sampling. I suppose the crackdown on that over the last 20 years is really based on recent case law rather than any specific legislation. But in a broader sense, the 1976 and Sonny Bono acts, in addition to the DMCA, are what have most enabled the notion that a copy of an intangible good is equivalent to a tangible one. Certainly Bill Gates would have gotten nowhere without the former, and none of them would have been passed without a lot of lobbying by those who'd already made millions selling copies of intangible things before it was possible for anyone to make those copies. Rob
