Belatedly here are some New York Time links: Protecting Mickey Mouse at Art’s Expense (Larry Lessig) and The Owners of Culture vs. the Free Agents (Edward Rothstein). Oh, and check out the neat cartoon that J.D. Lasica used from the Waxy.org site to accompany the links.
The TeleRead take: I especially like Larry Lessig’s proposal that copyright owners pay a small tax 50 years after publication–one way for their identities to be known to artists seeking to use the work in one form or another. Yes, Lessig’s real goal will be to shorten copyright terms. But meanwhile, yes, we need ways at least to mitigate the damage.
As for the Rothstein column, it admits that the two-decade extension may be too long. But it then goes on to say that “the recurring argument that culture is now ‘owned’ and must be freed and that creativity is being stifled as a result is overwrought. What innovations, for example, are being thwarted by corporate control over Mickey Mouse?” I can think of plenty–such as use by nonDisney artists, the very stuff of understandable concern to Lessign. Above all, what about everyday use of Mickey in, say, schools?
Simpy put, the ruling was more a triumph for lawyers and permissions departments–and rich heirs–than for society at large.
