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NormHart · 08-23-2009, 11:44 PM

I recently purchased a collection of short stories by Spider Robinson entitled By Any Other Name from Baen Books, $4.00 in almost all ebook formats (and, of course, DRM free);

http://www.webscription.net/p-54-by-any-other-name.aspx

Or collected with 4 other Sci-Fi ebooks for $10 (the Sheffield books are lovely)

http://www.webscription.net/p-496-w2...scription.aspx

The first story in Spider Robinson's collection is Melancholy Elephants (c) 1984, which offers an argument that I haven't seen elsewhere against copyright extension.

Mr. Robinson puts the argument far better than I can but his basic premises is that there are only so many ways to order words, music, and colors and that eventually, if copyrights are extended too far, there will not be any way to create new art since any presentation will be vulnerable to accusations of plagiarism.

I'd love to hear what the thoughtful folks here have to say, I am tired of the "DRM bad" argument.

(It is quite a good short story BTW.)

08-23-2009, 11:44 PM	#1
NormHart Semper Carpe Bufo Posts: 537 Karma: 21676 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Napa Valley, California Device: Kindle2 & Kindle3	A literary comment on DRM I recently purchased a collection of short stories by Spider Robinson entitled By Any Other Name from Baen Books, $4.00 in almost all ebook formats (and, of course, DRM free); http://www.webscription.net/p-54-by-any-other-name.aspx Or collected with 4 other Sci-Fi ebooks for $10 (the Sheffield books are lovely) http://www.webscription.net/p-496-w2...scription.aspx The first story in Spider Robinson's collection is Melancholy Elephants (c) 1984, which offers an argument that I haven't seen elsewhere against copyright extension. Mr. Robinson puts the argument far better than I can but his basic premises is that there are only so many ways to order words, music, and colors and that eventually, if copyrights are extended too far, there will not be any way to create new art since any presentation will be vulnerable to accusations of plagiarism. I'd love to hear what the thoughtful folks here have to say, I am tired of the "DRM bad" argument. (It is quite a good short story BTW.) Last edited by NormHart; 08-23-2009 at 11:46 PM. Reason: Arrrg, brownies!!!