Article in today's NYTimes re imminent expiration of European copyright protection on recordings from the 1950s, and how this has the industry in a tizzy (again):
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/02/international/02CND_COPY.htmlThis comes about because the period for copyright protection in Europe is only 50 yrs, compared to the 95 yrs presently protected in the US. The industry is trying to convince the EU nations to extend their exclusivity period, or alternatively to have US Customs impound European material that is still copyright-protected here.
What one wonders will they do about Europe based websites that offer high bitrate downloads of out-of-copyright files? Will the industry try to convince ISPs to block access to those sites? ?
Nice thought. Maybe they can get some pointers from the Peoples Republic of China, or Iran. They've had significant experience in blocking undesirable data flow.
HTH