Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Let me toss something into the queue here about expiration of
copyright. One of the big deals currently is that copyright expires in
Europe 50 years after publication, if I'm not mistaken, and next year
we're going to see the first of the Beatles catalog go public domain.

Now, I doubt that Paul McCartney will starve as a result (not sure
about Ringo), but I think we can expect that as time goes on, living
people with marginal incomes may be affected by this, lesser-known
performers, songwriters, etc. There could well be one of Gerry's
Pacemakers out there who'd like a few extra quid.

Is this being addressed, to you knowledge? Should it be?
  

    
<jonl>, I'm noticing some inkwell.vue links don't show more recent
postings (e.g., posting #50 above) -- is this some sort of glitch, or a
delay in propagation, or something else? I've been sharing links to
folks outside the WELL, and I notice that some Web links stop with
posting #49.
  

    
Copyright is generally 70 years after death in the EU, and an
extension for recording copyright from 50 to 70 years after production
was sneaked in last year:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14882146

This was galling for those of us who'd beaten back the proposal the
last couple of times, but given the white heat of entitlement that
ageing pop musicians were focusing on the Eurocracy it was hardly
surprising.
  

    
Ah, I missed that!
  

    
Mike, to your question about the links: it sounds like the link was
copied after using the "scroll" feature that specifies a specific range
of links.  I.e. if you spedified a link parameter 

   &q=0-49

You would only see the first 49 posts.

<gail> created an tinyurl link that will show the first page of the
conversation, with a "more" link to subsequent pages:

   http://tinyurl.com/inkwell-godwin
  

    
http://beta620.nytimes.com/viewer/times-skimmer/
Big Victory on Internet Buoys Lobby:

In some ways, it was the awakening of a generation that has come to
rely on its right to digital freedom.
“What this did show is as a citizen in the Internet age, you have to
add the Internet and your digital rights and liberties onto the list of
things you need to be worried about if you want to retain your
political freedoms,” said Rebecca MacKinnon, a fellow at the New
America Foundation and the author of a book on digital rights, “Consent
of the Networked.”

A bit more background on how things came together over SOPA/PIPA and
where things may go from here.

Obviously a lot of folks will try to hitch their wagons to a so-called
movement. I'm skeptical any movement exists. I do think their is a
growing awareness of the issues of digital freedom - however ill
defined. At this point I think it is more of a Don't Tread on Me
stance. User's will react when provoked. The difficulties of
definitions of assumed 'rights' are probably what prohibit more
pro-active actions --- for the moment.

What do you all think?
  

    
TPP - Looks like it's going to be the battle of the acronyms:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/03/son-of-acta-meet-the-next-secr
et-copyright-treaty.ars