No Rock And Roll Fun

I GOT YOU BY THE BALLS FOR THE CENTURY, BABE: The copyright furore is about more than just the right of some university students to avoid buying the new Eminem album. (And, no matter what Google tells you, this site does not host downloads of Holly Vallance's new single Down Boy, in MP3, video or - especially - Windows Media, thank you.) The problem is, the debate about what copyright is for, and what it can do, often gets lost in a whole host of silly nonesense about Chinese pirate copies of Matrix II, and kids downloading a thousand Phil Collins tunes before bedtime. Thanks to rocktober, then, for pointing us to this considered piece on the Sonny Bono copyright act, balancing out what would be lost without it (grandchildren living off other people's royalties) with what it would have stopped in the past (for example, Disney - prime movers of the new law - would never have been able to make Snow White or Cinderella). Worthwhile and thoughtful.