The dirty secret of Copyright Laws

Dana Blankenhorn writes a very good comment on Roy Disney's recent resignation from the board of the Walt Disney Company and the future of copyright laws:

"(...) By making Mickey's property rights virtually immortal, Michael Eisner made the past more valuable than the future. So he milked the past, and milked it and milked it. But even for Disney that process became self-defeating. What worked in the short term became failure in the long term, and the long term always comes. (...)

When the founders made copyright a limited right, granted by Congress for a limited time, they were, as always, brilliant. When we perverted their creation, through the Bono Act and the DMCA, we made the past more important than the future, stifling our childrens' creativity (because they can't use copyrighted material for new creations) in the process.

We must build on the past, not use it against the future. We must roll back the Bono Act, add to the public domain, and (while we're at it) put fair use back into the DMCA. (...)"

Nothing to add...

Comments

[Dana Blankenhorn]

Thanks for reposting my note. As I said, it took me some time to figure out what bothered me about this, and why.

All the best...