Infinite Copyright Is Killing Culture

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Moneybox
A blog about business and economics.
March 30 2012 7:58 AM

Infinite Copyright Is Killing Culture

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In the United States, books published before 1922 are in the public domain. Later ones are copyrighted. And the window no longer shifts. Congress enacts retroactive extensions of copyright terms, so the public domain never expands. The impact on book shimpments, as seen above, is dramatic.

Matthew Yglesias is the executive editor of Vox and author of The Rent Is Too Damn High.

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