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01/15/2003 Archived Entry: "The kinda good, the very very bad - which is also extremely ugly"

I'm not American, so this isn't supposed to directly affect me, but it certainly will...

Today, the US Supreme Court upheld the extended copyrights sought by large corporations for their intellectual property (read as 'Disney' and 'Mickey Mouse'), known as the Sonny Bono Copyright Act. The US Constitution allows Congress to give authors and inventors the exclusive right to their works for a "limited" time. Congress has repeatedly lengthened the terms of copyrights over the years. Copyrights lasted only 14 years in 1790. With the challenged 1998 extension, the period is now 70 years after the death of the creator. Works owned by corporations are now protected for 95 years.

This doesn't just apply to things like Mickey Mouse (which I feel should fall under a different law for 'icons'), it's about all sorts of written and artistic works, and perhaps things as disparate as mathematical equations and formulas. The public really does lose out here, having to wait nearly a century after the death of the property holder (note: not the creation of the work) to develop the property further or create derivative works.

I'm purely disgusted. Americans, please keep an eye out for Canadian and Australian websites where you can download works by Americans that your own government doesn't allow you to view. It's legal there.

Cool project idea: First, buy one of these (the professional 100W one), then buy a 5.6" or 6" LCD screen with NTSC input (or SVideo, if you can find one), and display movies 4' by 4' on a nearby wall. If you are a movie lover like me, this will rock your world. As soon as I have a job and money I will be doing this very cool thing.