"The Progress of Science and the Useful Arts"

As I stated before, I think the current state of copyright law is flat out absymal. The laws as they exist only serve to concentrate wealth in the hands of the few major corporations that own the most copyrights. Well, I happen to have found a great policy paper which agrees with all I have to say. Read it. Then try and argue the Sonny Bono Copyright Act (extending copyright terms to 95 years!!) is a good thing. Think about this as you read about a new lawsuit against Dan Brown (author of The Da Vinci Code) and Random House Publishing. The authors of a book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail are suing for plagiarism and copyright infringement. However, the underlying "plagiarism" was of an idea based off historical events. If this constitutes "plagiarism," then the fact/idea distinction of copyright law is lost. Suddenly, films and books off historical events are in jeopardy. The copyright law needs serious revision. We cannot let corporations own our history. They certainly already own our culture.