Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | Giles Foden: Harry Potter and the digital prisoners
Some very good points - as I seem to recall, media owners are looking to increase the amount of time that copy protection lasts. Doesn't seem to be fair, the majority of films seem to break even within a year or two of their production, anything that goes beyond the death of the author seems excessive.
Films are slightly different as they are not (usually) the product of more than one person, they're financed by a studio, produced, directed, written, acted, shot...
However, there should be a stop on the length of time rights holders have to exploit a film.
Free access to films and programmes would be a good thing. There doesn't seem to be much logic behind the fact that it can still cost £20 for a DVD of Laurel and Hardy films - surely the intervening time should mean we can obtain classic films for less than full price?
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