Posted by Alpha on 09/25/05 02:31

"Mark Burns" <marcus520520@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1109135860.423858.201800@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> Great article. Interesting as to where this is heading. I believe
> that the broadcasters have taken over, and are the real ones in charge.
> Politicians cannot afford to cross them, as they are dependent on
> television coverage for re-election.
>
> (Just because I am paranoid, doesn't mean that they aren't after us!)
>
> Copyright laws were never intended to create "intellectual property".
> This is a new term, indicating that the copyright holder has the right
> to hoard that to which they have title to. This is a new concept as
> well.
>
> Copyright was not the sole right to copy, but the right to market and
> distribute. People have been copying passages from books for
> centuries, for their purpose, or for quoting in support or rebuttals to
> arguments. The purpose of copyright is to encourage people to create,
> but for the benefit of the consumer and intellectual thought. When the
> product no longer has marketable value, then it becomes public domain.
> Thomas Jefferson never believed that patents or copyrights should last
> more than 19 years, what he had calculated to be the duration of a
> genration.
>
> Most are concerned about distribution of copyrighted material over the
> internet without the permission of the author. This should be
> troubling to us all. It is patently wrong, and could bring about a
> reduction of new material in the future.
>
> But there are so many reasons for a person to be able to archive his
> own material, get rid of troublesome menus, remove offensive scenes and
> language, &c that fall under the fair use doctrine.
>
> As a final thought, think of all of the great old films that have
> fallen into disrepair due to lack of attention from the "copyright
> holders". Very often, films are restored from private copies, that
> have been protected by others for decades. I do not trust that the DVD
> that I purchase today will be available ten or twenty years from now.
>
> Oh well, I am off to save my VHS copy of "ET" to DVD. The current
> release of the DVD has the shotguns that the cops were threating the
> kids with mambie pambie walkie talkies. I want to save a little bit of
> political incorrectness for the record.
>
> Wind me up Alpha, and off I go.....
>

Actually, the collectors edition of ET has both versions of the movie,
including the rifle version.

[Back to original message]