Re: Re: Re: Bill Bell recordings on LP?

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Posted by Kenneth Sloan on May 28, 2003 at 13:31:43:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Bill Bell recordings on LP? posted by Jim Andrada on May 28, 2003 at 12:35:45:

After all, isn't the original (since perverted by Mickey Mouse, etc) concept behind patents, copyrights, etc to provide protection in return for making the material publicly available, thereby ensuring that authors, inventors etc make the benefits of their works available to the widest possible audience instead of hiding them?

Patents, yes.

Copyright? I don't think so.

According to my lay appreciation of copyright history, copyright began as "support for the arts" and has evolved into "protection of intellectual properety". Patents were an explicit bargain ("you tell us how you did it, and we'll protect you from copycats"), while copyright is more onesided ("as long as you hold the copyright, you have the absolute right to decide how - and IF - the work is copied").

The freedom to make your own copies starts when the copyright expires - NOT when it becomes merely inconvenient for you to acquire a copy by any other means.

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