Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward
I have to ask - who is "stealing" from who?
Now note, this is a US centric issue, but also affects some other countries to a lesser extent.
Copyright is not property. Never has been. It is a limited monopoly for a set term.
And therein lies the rub. Copyright is a contract, between the creator and society (as represented by their government).
Can you unilaterally change the terms of a contract to favor you over the other party? Would you be happy if, say, a mortgage company decided they like the profits from your mortgage, and extended the payments for another 100 years, before clearing the mortgage?
Because, in the US, that is what has been happening.
From 1909 until 1976 (1978, if you prefer) the maximum term for a copyright was 56 years - maximum.
Everybody knew the term, and knew that their copyright would go away after 56 years. The object would go into public domain, free for anybody to use and/or copy. Nobody held a gun to their heads saying "create on these terms or die". Strictly voluntary.
So any extension of copyright beyond the terms in force at the time of creation, is every bit as much "theft" from the public as "pirating" a item under copyright is, every bit as much as if a bank unilaterally extended you mortgage to get more money from you.
So in the US, every copyrighted item created in the US should have been made PD from (currently) 1961, soon to be 1962, on back. And every dollar acquired from items that otherwise would have been in PD is literal theft of the public's money.
The same for extending Berne lengths from Life +50 to Life + 70. Those 20 years are theft from the public.
So remember, in copyright morality, the "theft" goes both ways.. .
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A government can not steal. They just change the rules and make it legal.
Apache