Reply #29: Even if you think downloading music should be punished [View All]

[divineorder]

These draconian laws are insane. But our copyright laws are also insane. The original term for copyright was 14 years, plenty of time to get the maximum amount of profit from something. Later 28. I think it should have stayed there. The idea was that eventually ideas would go into the public domain where anyone could use them freely without fear. Now life plus 75 years. Even if I agreed to it, why 75 years? Why not 10 years, enough to pay for the heirs? If we had such draconian terms long ago, there would have been far fewer songs and far fewer raw materials for artists to work with. Not to mention all of the stuff that would have sat on shelves unused and unnoticed.

The recording industry is desperate. It's had layoffs and downsizing as millions listen to anything other than the usual pop stuff. So it hopes that horrifying examples would scare people back into the music buying mode again with them having the power to determine public tastes.