[Wikipedia-l] Dream a little...

Mon Oct 16 16:13:17 UTC 2006

On Mon, 16 Oct 2006 09:43:05 -0400, Maury Markowitz wrote:
> >I think we should also focus on works from the last 30 years and put
> >some energy behind a copyright reform effort to get even older content
> >liberated by legal means.
> 
> I'm sorry, but I believe this will have no measurable effect on the wiki.
> 
> In opposition to any effort this $100 million could possibly generate, the 
> entire media industry is arrayed with a variety of well established lobby 
> groups to ensure no such change takes place.

That comparison is misleading. The real comparison is with the money "our"
side is spending now. The battle over software patents in Europe showed
that the better arguments have a fair chance of winning against monied
interests if you can get your arguments heard. And there's no shortage of
good arguments in this case.

If you want to win against special interests, you need to drag them and
their flimsy out into public view. Doing that takes a lot of time and
money, but it doesn't take more money than they can afford to spend.

> It is resonable to suspect that the only changes to the law will be to
> increase the length of time for protections, while at the same time
> removing existing user rights.

Possibly. And if we don't do anything, that is exactly what will happen.

> Meanwhile that same amount of money could liberate a huge variety of media
> that would immediately be available for use. Such examples would make the

$100 million is a drop in the bucket as far as copyrights are concerned.
Whatever you can buy will be a tiny fraction of what was stolen from the
public each time copyright durations got extended retroactively.

> media holders happy, not mad, and could cause other media asset libraries to
> be put up for sale as well.

Pretty much everything is for sale _right_now_, if you can afford it.

Roger