A few weeks ago, Slashdot had a post about the new bill in Congress to make streaming infringing videos a felony, punishable by up to 5 years in jail if just 10 people watch the video. As more details come out, the bill keeps looking worse and worse, as it appears that the definitions used in the bill would mean that merely embedding or linking to an infringing YouTube video could put you on the hook for jail time. Obviously, supporters of the bill insist that’s not who will be targeted with this bill, but just the fact that they could be should be worrisome enough. We’ve seen other laws “misused” in the past.
Again, there’s that idea that all works and ideas are to be commodified and hoarded. The Founders allowed for a 14-year copyright, and another 14-year extension if the author or inventor was still alive. They had this crazy idea that creative works should eventually become part of the public domain, to enrich society.
What a bunch of losers.
To protect Mickey, the copyright term is now the life of the author plus 95 years. To be extended, I’m sure, as soon as we approach the 90th anniversary of Walt’s death.