We live at the confluence of two conflicting realities. On the one hand, we have extended copyright protection to the life of the author plus 95 years, with additional extensions available, meaning that Steamboat Willy will be under copyright protection until 2023. At the exact same time, with the proliferation of digital publication mechanisms and the availability of new content, the half-life of the average piece of Intellectual Property is roughly equivalent to a bowl of ice cream sitting on a sunny beach. Companies who spent millions of dollars to secure copy-protection in the 1980s have vanished from the face of the earth, while those who turned a blind eye to software piracy have come to dominate only to see their dominance placed under threat as they too succumb to the Siren Call. It is entertaining to sit on the sidelines and watch with amusement the antics of publishers desperate to cling to the right to sell a product which they well know has exhausted its useful revenue stream within weeks of publication.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 21:12:40 +0000