EU Officially Seizes The Public Domain, Retroactively Extends Copyright
As was unfortunately expected, despite no evidence that this made any economic sense at all, the member states of the EU have agreed to retroactively extend copyright another 20 years, at which point you can expect it to be extended again. This is nothing short of governments and the entertainment industry seizing works from the public domain.
As someone that works on documentaries I’m in a somewhat unique position of creating original content that very often relies on the intellectual property of others to help tell the story so I can understand where both sides are coming from. If you create something you want that creation to be protected so that you can monetize it otherwise there is no way to make a living from your work.
On the flip side I think the length and breadth of copyright laws should be reasonable. Extending them repeated destroys their intended purpose and stifles creation of new, original works. Unlike some people I don’t rail against copyright law or think it should be abolished. They serve a good purpose but like anything they can be abused and taken too far. Ultimately, I believe copyright law should be a shield, not a sword, and the more it is aggressively used as a weapon the more it will hurt everyone in the long run.