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posted by mpawlo
on Thursday December 12, @03:43PM
from the seth-finkelstein dept.
Music swapping -- encryption -- the frozen public domain -- where should we draw the line between rewarding creativity through the copyright system and society's competing interest in the free flow of ideas?
This is discussed in the Free Expression Policy Project's report:
One of the things which I continue to wonder about in all of this is the misconception that just because something enters the public domain that it means that a corporation can no longer sell whatever it is it was selling. Like Disney saying that it can no longer sell the movie Sleeping Beauty. After all, which would you rather do: Buy a Disney labeled DVD or PSSSST - this one I've got in my coat?
Disney also still gets to protect it's trademarks and labels. Further, none of the extra content provided on a Disney DVD can be copied. True, the movie itself can be copied - but any/all other content could not be used as that would probably (unless the clips are from the same era) be still under copyright.
So why? Remember those ads "For the last time ever..."? Why? It makes no sense. All they have to do is to keep their mouths shut and go on selling.
Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be
lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition.
- Isaac Asimov
GrepLaw
