June 03, 2003
Blogging light - Moving Soon
I may not be blogging much in the months of June and July as I am in the process of moving to the Berkeley/Oakland California area. I will be starting law school at Boalt Hall in the fall. As you might guess from this site, I am interested in Cyberlaw, Intellectual Property Issues, etc, but from a public interest perspective. More on all this as it develops! (Photo shared by Drewish and shared alike by me!)
Read This Book
For no particular reason, I'd like to recommend to you maybe my favorite book. It's a collection of short stories. I keep several paperback copies on hand in order to give to people who I think might read it. Charlotte is the story that I read by Earley first, and it is so well-crafted I had to find more. This is not a detailed review. Just trust me. You need to read this. You'll love it (or you should give up fiction reading). It's even inexpensive. If you click on the link above or the photo of the cover to the left, you'll be taken to bn.com where you can grab a copy. Or, visit your local bookstore and have them order it. That'd work. I bet bn.com and amazon even have lots of gushing reviews on their site for it. I haven't checked, but believe them if they say it's good, and don't listen to a word from those liars if they don't like it. :-)
Public Domain Enhancement Act
Ask Congress to take a tiny step towards re-balancing the Copyright system by signing this petition. It suggests that copyright holders be asked to pay $1 to keep their copyright after 50 years. If they don't, it enters the public domain. If they do, their copyright lasts as long as Congress sets. (Currently the life of the author plus 70 years!) I think this proposal is overly cautious. I'd prefer the same system with a framer's copyright of 14 years, as it was originally. Then the renewal should happen every 14 years afterwards until whatever absurd limit Congress sets. Of course, I'd prefer even more a strict 28 year limit, as we originally had. But what benefits the public (and Disney actually) Disney doesn't recognize as beneficial to themselves. They unfortunately only see their narrow interests in protecting their creations eternally, failing to recognize the benefits they would reap if the creativity of others were allowed to innovate off their works. They themselves work this way and still don't get it. Ugh.