Abe Lincoln Says You Shouldn't Share Music
from the according-to-the-medium-Eisner dept
Among his many skills and talents used in running Disney all these years, I never knew that Michael Eisner could also speak for the dead. He has written an opinion piece for the Financial Times saying that (obviously) Abe Lincoln wouldn't have approved of internet file sharing. Of course, some of us like to think that Abe Lincoln would be smart enough to get a basic grip on economics and understand the very very big difference between stealing a comic book and sharing music online. The Register, for their part, does a pretty good job mocking Eisner for putting the words in the mouth of others. I especially like how Eisner brushes over the "for a limited time" part of patent law - since Disney is the company who keeps forcing that "limited time" to be stretched to "a ridiculously long period of time".
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IP
A "limited right" is not what Disney and others want. They want a government assigned monopoly.
The Pacific Railway Act is a strange reference. The purpose of this act was to promote the free exchange of communications (in this case rail cars). Using the anlagogy provided by this act the MPAA / RIAA want to control the marshalling yards so that they can control the contents of the cars.
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