Re: A mere photograph

Larry Urbanski mentioned in passing "a prime example of copyright changes decreasing a rich public domain."

I don't dispute the fact; only the implication that copyright decreasing the public domain is necessarily a bad thing. We should not assume that works are more readily available because they are in the public domain. Sometimes the copyright monopoly will encourage publication and distribution of a work by the owner and his licensees, while the same work might not be deemed as valuable or as marketable once it goes p.d., and hence may ironically become LESS available to the public than it was when it was still under copyright.

Bob Cumbow
<cumbr[_at_]perkinscoie.com> Received on Fri May 02 1997 - 22:08:29 GMT