2 ms·
> Crazy how much Walt Disney's lobbying so many years ago had such an impact and irreparable damage to digital content access, as well as, all the TPM nonsense
by Mindwipe 2y ago
> Crazy how much Walt Disney's lobbying so many years ago had such an impact and irreparable damage to digital content access, as well as, all the TPM nonsense that came after.
This isn't true, but it won't stop people claiming otherwise on HN.
(The main reason the US extended copyright protection is because it had committed to not be out of line with the EU terms in international treaties, and the EU reached their number by harmonising to the longest amongst the member states which was Germany, and the main reason German copyright is so long is due to their domestic publishing and newspaper industries).
- ben_w 2y ago> and the main reason German copyright is so long is due to their domestic publishing and newspaper industries This is surprising to me. Not domestic publishing (I understand how that could have happened) but why would newspapers even care about protecting what they wrote about 30 years ago — how are they expecting to monetise today on how they reported in 1994 on such things such as the United Nations accepting Palau as a new member, or the Swiss Federal Assembly's approval of the Marrakesh agreement, or whoever won whichever sports events? Today's headlines are tomorrow's fish and chips wrappers, as the British say.
- Mindwipe 2y agoI mean the main reason is that (at least then, but somewhat so today) the largest newspaper publishers in Germany and their biggest literature publishers were the same people, honestly. But it meant that the press were very much on side. They probably also felt that their archives were more valuable pre-internet. Germany also just has a tradition of very strong authors rights.