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Originally Posted by billd91 The problem with intellectual property laws, in the US at least, is their relationships with corporations. IP laws designed to protect an author's (or creator's) right to profit from the work can have the effect of suppressing creativity that they weren't originally intended to have because large corporations have longevity and political influence far beyond that of small publishers and individual authors. Mickey Mouse should have been public domain by now but the Disney Corporation and a compliant congress have extended the IP laws so that Disney can retain exclusive control of their signature icon. And they'll probably extended it again right before he comes up for public domain, all of this long after the Mouse's creator is long dead. |
This is horribly off-topic, but a fair number of legal problems were created by the Courts ruling that Corporations counted as "individuals" (including all the rights thereof) for legal purposes.
Corporations, which have no natural expiration date (unlike, say people), aren't subject to many of the "controls" that govern individual property, like inheritance tax and the like. However, they benefit from all the rights. This creates a skewed situation in many areas, not just intellectual property law.
Whether (or when) this will be altered, I have no idea.
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