Right now there is a steaming, STINKING pile of filth wending it's way through congress. It started out as the Senate's Protect-IP, a similar and even worse bill called E-Parasites/SOPA has been defecated in the house. I may blog about this pos later, for now you can read about it here and here.
MAFIAA groups have for YEARS been attempting, sometimes successfully, to push swill like this through as law, and not just in the U.S either.
What I'm going to talk about is just what makes all bills like this suck so bad. See, in the U.S. we used to have this thing called public domain. If you view the link you will see that in the U.S. when copyright became law in 1790 it had a duration of 14 years, with the option to renew for another 14 years of the author of the work was still alive. Relatives and descendants were expected to get jobs and support themselves, not live off a dead creators work in perpetuity. If that had not changed author renewed works from 1983 and before would now be in public domain. So for all those works MAFIAA groups would be unable to sue people for sharing them, Beatles, Led Zep, Stones, all the old stuff would be in public domain as well as all the classic movies.
So it would have been so sorry RIAA/MPAA, no lawsuit 4 U. In a strange way I think it would be MORE of a discouragement to piracy, as they still COULD sue people for sharing over 1984 and up intellectual property; with the older public domain stuff being new and relevant enough to be worth sharing a lot of people just wouldn't risk making the newer stuff available.
But of course such was not the case, as through the years copyright duration became longer and longer and longer.
So here we are in bicentennial 1976 and copyright has gone from a total of 28 years, and that ONLY if the living author renews it after 14 years, to 75 years OR the life of the author plus another 50 years. Hey, those no talent descendants have to eat too!
This looked like a pretty sweet deal, I mean not only is the author of the work covered for life, his relatives get to feed off the gravy train for another 50 years. Who could complain! Well, unbenounce to most people in reality land, legally, corporations are people too! But unlike a living, breathing person, unless they go out of business, corporations NEVER DIE. Works made for hire, which would be works owned by corporations were covered by copyright for a static 75 years. Not that long a time period for an eternal entity.
A scary thing was about to happen. It was looking like Disney's prize mouse, Mickey could actually wind up in the public domain. But there's no need to fear sleaze congress is here, and with intense lobbying by Disney:
Prompted perhaps by the Disney group's lavish donations of campaign cash - more than $6.3 million in 1997-98, according to the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics - Congress passed and President Clinton signed the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.At the beginning I made reference to "zombie Sonny Bono". The term fits, as this bill was passed nine months after his death.
Mary Bono, speaking on the floor of the United States House of Representatives, said:
Actually, Sonny wanted the term of copyright protection to last forever. I am informed by staff that such a change would violate the Constitution. ... As you know, there is also [then-MPAA president] Jack Valenti's proposal for term to last forever less one day. Perhaps the Committee may look at that next Congress.Kind of reminds me of Orwell's 1984's O'Brien talking about his mental picture of the state as a "boot stamping on a human face, forever". When it comes to control enforced by government, "forever" is usually NOT a good thing. So now its the life of the author plus 70 years, and for Mr. Corporation eternius 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication, whichever endpoint is earlier. Sweet dreams Mickey Rat!!
Joyjoy citizen, it doesn't end here noooo. Because sure as shit when Mickey is again about to go into the public domain in 2023 Disney will be there, lobbying yet another iteration of the corrupt U.S. congress for an extension to copyright. Thanks to the Supreme Court, there is NO limit to how many times congress can extend the length of copyright duration, effectively making the possibility of anything covered under copyright now entering the public domain as dead as Sonny Bono. For murdering public domain it's debatable who smells worse, that dirty, stinking rat Mickey or the rotting corpse of his partner, zombie Sonny Bono.
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