chris wrote:
You really think the courts won't try to shut the
internet down? Have you
not been following the RIAA and the MPAA's battle over P2P sharing...
that is EXACTLY what you are saying to do. Violate copyright on a massive
scale, and see what they do... the DMCA and other crazy laws are what
they do.
The real solution is for someone to grow a brain, and revise what is
determined as needing a copyright. I personally have no objection to
Disney keeping MM in their control. They still actively develop new stuff
using the character. I think it is quite fair for them to have exclusive
control over MM (and other things). But what needs to be done is revise
copyright, so things that are in use (and REALLY in use) can be
protected, and the rest of the stuff that has been abondoned will go
public domain.
This way, the junk the companies don't actively use or care about, can be
opened up for others to take advantage of, rather than being caught up in
the middle of the wars over the handful of stuff that is still used and
desired to be protected.
Jerome Fine replies:
Are you suggesting that in order for someone or a company
to keep a copyright, they MUST prove that they are selling a
minimum amount of the product - say 1% of the peak level
ever attained - with a minimum number of years allowed -
similar to the number of years allowed for a patent?
For software, perhaps there would be a mandatory license
required for the source code at $ 1.00 if bugs were left
unfixed for a certain number of years. I agree that there
should NOT be a requirement that a company fix a bug,
but I do think that there should be a requirement that
someone else NOT be stopped from doing so, although
ownership of the code used to fix the bug might need to be
shared in some manner.
Sincerely yours,
Jerome Fine
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