Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past. – George Orwell, “1984”
I just finished listening to Lawrence Lessig’s keynote speech at Oscon, titled free_culture. It’s huge (9 MB), and it’s over 30 minutes long, but you must listen to it.
In the not-too-distant future, if trends continue, I will have violated several laws by even thinking about this speech…much less linking to it and quoting Mr. Orwell.
Here are a couple of great sites to get you up-to-speed on this issue:
Opposing Copyright Extension, Protecting the Public Domain by Dennis Karjala
Copyright’s Commons