[Slight OT] TDPL in Russia

[Steven Schveighoffer]

On Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:08:04 -0400, dsimcha <dsimcha at yahoo.com> wrote:

> == Quote from Steven Schveighoffer (schveiguy at yahoo.com)'s article
>> Copyright and patent laws exist to *encourage* creation, they
>> achieve the result with an indirect requirement, because otherwise it's
>> impossible to charge for innovation.
>
> True, except when the whores in Congress retroactively extend copyright  
> terms to
> "until Hell freezes over" because the media companies say so, even if the
> copyright owner happens to be dead or not contactable, thus discouraging
> innovation instead of helping it.

hehe, I agree there.  The fact that a copyright lasts longer than anyone  
ever lived is sort of a perversion.

But I think we'd be much worse off without any copyright protection.  The  
good news about copyright is that the ideas are not what's protected, it's  
the expression of the ideas.  So you can take ideas from copyrighted  
material and rephrase it to continue innovating.

But software patents that last 17 years?  That's just crap, and I hope  
someday we can do better than that.

-Steve