The US copyright situation is probably the worst in the world. There is no reason for intellectual property protection to extend to life plus 75 years for anything – films, recordings, books. We have Sonny Bono and Disney – and of course the US Congress – to thank for this. But there’s movement afoot, starting with these two recent articles from WIRED:

1/17/14: http://www.wired.com/opinion/2014/01/174071/

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1/17/14: http://www.wired.com/opinion/2014/01/internet-companies-care-fair-use/

And for still more on this subject and its deleterious impact on preservation, scholarship, and artistic creation, refer to the ongoing series of articles in the Association for Recorded Sound’s website at http://www.arsc-audio.org/copyright-committee.html.

The bottom line here? “Fair use” as defined by current US law makes a mockery of the founders’ concerns for free distribution of intellectual property after a reasonable amount of time.

It’s time for a change!