Copyright and wrong

“Parliament had given them rights, but it had set a time limit
on them: 21 years for books already in print and 14 years for new
ones, with an additional 14 years if the author was still alive
when the first term ran out. After that, the material would enter
the public domain so that anyone could reproduce it. The lawmakers
intended thus to balance the incentive to create with the interest
that society has in free access to knowledge and art. The Statute
of Anne thus helped nurture and channel the spate of inventiveness
that Enlightenment society and its successors have since
enjoyed.

“Over the past 50 years, however, that balance has shifted.
Largely thanks to the entertainment industry’s lawyers and
lobbyists, copyright’s scope and duration have vastly increased. In
America, copyright holders get 95 years’ protection as a result of
an extension granted in 1998, derided by critics as the “Mickey
Mouse Protection Act”. They are now calling for even greater
protection, and there have been efforts to introduce similar terms
in Europe. Such arguments should be resisted: it is time to tip the
balance back.”

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