We keep hearing from the RIAA and others that copyright protection keeps needing to be extended longer, and longer, and longer so that we stay in alignment with foreign copyright laws. After all, we don’t want the US to be thought of as paying less homage to Big Media companies creators than, say, Europe.
Except … oops! Turns out most of Europe has only a 50 year copyright on audio recordings. Which means that songs from the 50s are now entering into the public domain over there, even while they remain protected (and, no doubt, earning vitally needed profit for Big Media royalties for the impoverished estates of Elvis and Miles Davis) here in the US. And given the nature of the Internet, and P2P networking, that means that more of these songs are available for (illegal) download in the US, with no legal recourse against the dastardly villains doing so from, say, France.
So what do we have to do, you might ask the RIAA?
Well, the answer is obvious. We need alignment!
Alignment of US copyright laws to European standards, as has been argued for so long?
Don’t be absurd. Alignment of European copyright laws up to the higher US standard.
Yeah, I got your alignment right here … and it’s Lawful Evil, guys.
OMG *wheeze*
too funny.
too true.
man.