Text 1313, 59 rader
Skriven 2004-10-28 20:44:50 av Geo (1:379/45)
   Kommentar till text 1120 av Gary Wiltshire (1:379/45)
Ärende: Re: Article on WIPO & the public good
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From: "Geo" <georger@nls.net>

"Gary Wiltshire" <gaw@sover.net> wrote in message
news:opsgfo3e0eeipai0@news.barkto.com...

> Why 28 years then?  How bout 28 hours?

Because with the slowness of the economy in 1790 they figured 28 years should
be more than enough for an author to receive a resonable return on his labor by
selling books. If at the end of that 28 years there was still a lot of value in
an creation and the creator was willing to file they could even get another 28
years. I believe the reason they required a refiling was so that the knowledge
that wasn't being marketed would get released because the creator wouldn't
bother renewing the copyright and so the public would then get their chance to
make something with it.

In todays fast paced economy that same author could receive a reasonable return
in much less time and for other mediums that have been added to the ranks of
copyright protection the times are even shorter. For example a movie can make a
reasonable return in the first weekend if it's a decent flick, in 5 years it's
made it's full run of theaters, cable, dvd, and TV, if they haven't received a
reasonable return by then they don't deserve one. Software is obsolete in 10
years and not for sale or supported anymore, I mean heck what's the point of
providing copyright protection if the author isn't even TRYING to make money
from the copyrighted material?

I mean where is the payoff for the public to this bargain we make to provide
copyright protection? Oh you think the privledge of PAYING outrageous monopoly
prices is what we were after? We want access to build on top of the knowledge
being created, we don't want to buy products we want to create more products.
Instead what we get is a situation where everything invented in a man's
lifetime will be monopolized until his great grandchildren are dead, and if
things continue, by then it will have been extended to life plus 1000 years..

People really fail to see the danger in doing this, basically what is happening
is knowledge, invention, technology, is being put off limites for over 100
years. That has a HUGE stagnating effect on our society. Look at what happens
when a technology is released as public domain, the internet being the perfect
example. Economies went crazy, inventions sprang up everywhere, why? Because it
was a government invention that was given to the public instead of monopolized.
That's what we are missing for the term of a copyright or patent and that's why
we must keep the terms to a reasonable limit.

My favorite example, how many inventions were lost because we allowed Polaroid
to monopolize the instant film camera for the entire usable life of the
invention? Think about the possibilities we missed. Compare it to digital
imagery and what's happened with that, the cool devices, the tiny little chip
cameras in watches to the hires HDTV video cameras, etc. Picture the world
today if Polaroid had managed to patent digital imagery technology.. there
would be one maybe two digital cameras available, and they would make both.

Yes I agree, as a programmer you have a right to earn a living, but ask
yourself at what cost? You are missing out on all the other stuff that could
have been invented too you know.

Geo.

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