Steven C. Barr wrote:
... the owners of the copyrights of most sound recordings fall firmly
into group I, and are employing the classic "dog in the manger"
attitude toward sound recordings...e.g. "We own it...you CAN'T
reissue it...and we WON'T reissue it because it doesn't promise
enough profit!"
To make things worse, they are apparently trying to extend the US
concept of pseudo-eternal copyright to all known countries
I fall firmly in the first camp yet I don't own even a single
copyright!
Massive financial interests lie behind the volumes of press releases
promoting this idea that "copyright," (i.e. individuals having the
right to equity in what they create) has become excessive. This is
because they stand to profit handsomely from forcing contemporary
"content providers" into accept lower royalties because they are
competing economically with a larger public domain. Stock values have
soared behind the public perception that electronic distributors will
take a dominant position in negotiations for "content" over
traditional media.
I'm concerned about this because it's a classic case of killing the
goose that laid the golden egg. Copyright equity is how we in the
creative community finance everything we do. Limiting copyright can
only lead to a return to the government or corporate patronage of the
18th century arts community.