On Jan 25, 11:54 pm, Steven Hirsch <snhir...@gmail.com> wrote:
sicklittlemonkey wrote:
As I said, I never cared much for Disney, although once in a great while I
might find something of theirs I like.
The 116+ million yearly visitors to Disney theme parks don't share
this lack of enthusiasm. That's where the real money is with Mickey
Mouse & co.
And you may not realise how big it is in other countries, like Japan.
I have a Disney bank book around here somewhere.
And this gives them the moral right to control copyright legislation in the
United States and, via international arm-twisting, the world?
At the risk of being pedantic, the traditional goal of copyright and patent
protections is to further creativity and benefit society as a whole. It is
most specifically not intended to bolster a business model or a revenue
stream. At some point things got turned around, methinks.
Actually, it is to protect the works of authors, nothing more and
nothing less. It has nothing to do with the benefit to society,
corporate profits, or any other such thing. But if you are to
believe the US govt under Bush, then it should only protect the
authored works for a period of a year and then you have to pay them
money to protect it for you for another year. But if you write a book
or software package now, does 25 years on make it any less your work.
No. But then Govt always screw things like that up. I just wonder
if that idea will change now that we have a new president.
The funny thing about patents is there are many patents held by people
who didnt even build the item they described but they get to collect
money from the people who did build it. Windshield wipers is one of
the biggest examples of this. But dont mix up patents and copyrights
as they are not the same thing.