Eldred Loses

Bad news... the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the corporate interests in the Eldred v. Ashcroft case. See the story on Slashdot for more links. *sigh*

We'll be paying the great-great-great-great (ad nauseum) descendents of the Carter Family and Hank Williams royalties until the end of time (and anyone else who's written anything since 1920). More importantly, we probably won't. More likely, eventually the cost will be prohibitive as the culture moves away from that original time period, and interest will wane. Eventually, because this body of work (which has already made lots of money for the original artists and their heirs) will never be made free to the public domain, eventually, it will be lost.

All because Disney is afraid of someone making a cheap Mickey Mouse doll. Sheesh. You can still make money from the public domain, people. You have to share the profits a bit, yes, but you still make money. Once the work is completely lost, however, no more money can be made.

To quote my buddy Jason, "Where are we going? And why are we in this hand-basket?"