benefits of the public domain and limited copyright terms?

Hello,

On another mailing list a very pointed question was asked, the gist of the question being "why is the Public Domain necessary -- what's wrong with perpetual copyright terms?"

I've argued many times before about the necessity of the Public Domain and limited copyright terms. However, I'd like to ask the CNI-Copyright experts this same question. I'm hoping to assemble a concise list of reasoned answers. (I'm also hoping that there already exist documents and online resources going into depth on this topic.)

Depending on how the discussion progresses, I might take a Devil's Advocate position and ask tough questions, so be forewarned.

Btw, are there any copyright scholars who do not believe the Public Domain is vital and/or who would have no difficulty with perpetual copyright terms?

I look forward to the discussion.

Jon Noring
Yomu
http://www.yomu.com/
<noring[_at_]netcom.com> Received on Fri May 05 2000 - 13:09:55 GMT