[Foundation-l] Blogs vs. Wikis

[geni]

On 4/15/07, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell at gmail.com> wrote:
> In the US copyright is now effectively perpetual. In Eldredge vs
> Ashcroft the US supreme court ruled that repeated retroactive
> extensions do not violate the US constitutional requirement that
> copyrights be reserved only for "limited times".

Just because something is constitutionally possible does not mean it
will be done. Copyright has become more political that means
politicians are less likely to extend it (see recent decision by the
UK not to extend copyright on sound recordings).

> Already today we see many instances of free works falling out of the
> public domain because access to the public domain copies is lost to
> all except a few who only release modified and encumbered versions.
> We have no reason to expect this practice to stop, especially with the
> advent of webcasters/broadcasters rights providing additional levers
> to encumber works.

Eh still better than the UK system where public libraries will claim
copyright on direct scans of PD works.


-- 
geni