>I do, however, think that the "estate" part is bogus, and that a term >of 30-40 years total would serve quite nicely The "estate" part for me (personal opinion entirely) only has any real underlying, moral legitimacy in protecting the interests of offspring where, the author (copyright holder) of the work dies young leaving dependants. Once the kids / dependants have left home / ceased to be dependant, what does society - as opposed to big business - benefit form even a 40-y duration, let alone "Disney's" 70, 80, 90 ... >"the public interest becomes more important than continued royalties." Public interest does not appear to be well served in any of the juristictions I've looked at. Due to "Free Trade Agreements" (oxymoron if ever I read one) it looks like more or less the whole world is falling into line with the US model anyway. >>It is fair, I think, to see Disney as a stand in for all the large >>Intellectual Property holders which manage to lobby the US Congress It's about the most quoted example - probably not the only culprit though. > IANAL and I am too lazy to surf to be certain of the details but: > I'm not sure how we managed to pull it off, what with our various > free-trade deals, but here in Canada, it's been ruled that it is > permissible to exchange music that is subject to copyright so long as > you aren't charging or doing it on a mass scale. Wow. That's certainly not the case here. There may well be a lot of "turning a blind eye" going on - it's almost unenforcable anyway - but it's not become legal. As a kid I remeber buying LPs I probably wouldn't have done otherwise, because without something to offer as a swap the other kids wouldn't let you tape thier records!!!! that certainly benefitted the supplier. >With that, our relatively liberal drug laws, and legalized gay marriage, >I expect we will be invaded by the US any day now ;-) hahahaha Nah, that would never happen. 1) Though I gather Quebec would at least complete the alphabet of US states so that might sway Bush. (I gather he really wanted Iraq for the "Q" but has been told he can't actually keep it :) 2) Losing Canada as an independant country would make a mokery of the term "World Series" in several sports. Keeping Canada independant means there is at least a token "international" element :) >> Imagine a world with no "public domain". >I agree that would be a horror, and fear it is not entirely 'tin foil >hat' paranoid to have concerns here. Beware: it really must be tin. Aluminum cooking foil is completely ineffective against thier mind probes!!! Bob -- Whatever you Wanadoo: http://www.wanadoo.co.uk/time/ This email has been checked for most known viruses - find out more at: http://www.wanadoo.co.uk/help/id/7098.htm
