Copyright & Copywrong!

[Pietro Reynaud-Bersanino]

At Tue, 17 Oct 2000 16:57:13 +0300 (EET DST), Kari Olavi Lepola wrote:


>Copyrightlaw will not become obsolete nor will it be removed.
>Think how really basic thing it is that you have the right to
>own your intellectual work. 

>So if intellectual work isn't protected people will stop doing it. 
>
>Companies (even big ones) must be treated equally to humans.

>Like the story of Pocahontas,Disney made a film about that. They have
rights to >that film, so that 
>nobody can make a copy of it and show it for money for other people.
>But anyboydy can make their own film about Pocahontas and Disney can't
>say anything about that. 

I do not understand who pays the American Native (who invented the story
and the character) intellectual work ... the same for SnowWhite, did Disney
payed to all the descend of people who invented the fairy-tale. Did have
Fedro the copyright on Talking Animals? ... Maybe you know that Tony Twist,
an american ice-hokey player asked Todd McFarlane $24.5 million because he
use in his comics a villain called Antony Twistelli in his comic Spawn ...
not a charachter with the same face, just a similar name (and he won the
issue) ... what should European Granny ask to Disney to use Snowhite, what
should Grece government ask Disney to use Talking Animals, a biggest
invention that a crippled name!!?? 

>That's the point, the idea is public domain,
>but not the work itself. 

Who decide that an idea is pubblic domain. Take the Chemist Corporation who
go in the Rain Forest asking ancient medicine men about plants and do not
pay nothing for the idea af a medicine man who decided to use that plant to
cure an illness and and then put a copyright to protect "their own larceny". 
Having and idea is not an intellectual work? Intellectual work is just
manipolating some one else ideas?

The most part of human beeing do not know what a copyright law is but they
continue to have ideas, and  to produce intellectual work!

Then as Thomas Jefferson said, "one man's knowledge does never diminish
another's" - [and all intellectual property], "violates the efficiency rule
[of economics]: that price should equal marginal cost of reproduction, wich
for knowledge is nearly zero"

In fact Disney respect the efficiency rule and do not publish any disney
comics in USA.

IMH, we can discuss about the opportunity or the ethicity to put copyrigted
disney comics on the web but we cannot considering copyright law as a
divine law, a Tabu. Copyright is a law, with no more then 200 years, IMH,
it helped market society (capitalism in other words) to grow up, but now
the marketplace is mature a can defend himself in differents and more
efficient ways. Slavery decade almost all over the world, dead penalty
decaded all over Europe, VAT is decading in e-commerce, and copyright law
is going to decade in short time ...

Ciao da Pietro