XPost: rec.arts.tv, rec.arts.sf.tv   
   From: candid@dontbother.invalid   
      
   Jim Gysin wrote:   
   >   
   > Ian Galbraith sent the following on 10/27/2009 9:06 PM:   
   >> On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:17:33 -0500, Jim Gysin wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> SFTVratings sent the following on 10/26/2009 8:11 PM:   
   >> [snip]   
   >>   
   >>>> Twenty-eight years   
   >>>> is long enough.   
   >>> Why?  Because you say so?   
   >>   
   >> How long do you think it should be?   
   >   
   > As long as the current holder of the intellectual property rights wants   
   > it to be.  If one artist's relatives want to keep it in the family   
   > forever, that's their right.   
      
   Not according to the Constitution of the United States of America, it   
   fucking isn't!   
      
   > the cultural asset would *always* be available to anyone who was   
   > willing to meet the terms of the owner of the rights of that cultural   
   > asset.   
      
   OH RLY? You DO know that copyright also lets them put it "in the vault"   
   and refuse to make fresh copies available at all? And with DRM and the   
   DMCA, they can even make all the existing copies self-destruct. And then   
   they can sit on it for however long they please. If you had your way and   
   the copyright term became infinite, they could do that for generations.   
      
   The only reason it would still *always* be available to anyone, despite   
   this, would be because of file sharing and the fact that there's no such   
   thing as uncrackable DRM.   
      
      
   > And any attempt to take that cultural asset away by force   
      
   When did we shift from discussing copyright infringement to discussing   
   heisting a painting from a museum or similar acts?   
      
   > no matter how prettily you try to dress it up, is thuggery and theft   
   > and against everything that a free market is supposed to stand for.   
      
   Indeed. That's why I'm against copyright, but in favor of the laws   
   against larceny. Anyone who holds up a bookstore with a gun or beats up   
   the night watchman at a museum and then steals the Mona Lisa deserves   
   jail time.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)