Hi Everyone, Copyright is an interesting subject and it does not bother me at all that we discuss it in this mailing list. The topic clearly interests many of us - why? is a curiosity. My preferred period of copyright is 10 years. Derived from evidence that a decade from publication was sufficient to encourage Descartes. If you have the Dover reprint of his Geometry, you will see at the end a translation of the original declaration of French copyright. Copyright, patents, other intellectual property rights are likely most usefully considered in operational terms. A maximization problem - what term balances encouragement of new effort by providing a period of entitlement to any proceeds thereof, vs encouragement of new work via free use of previous work? The solution may differ depending upon the context (eg national boundaries and development) and the subject matter (eg computer software might have a short copyright because it is a rapidly moving field). I do not expect logic in legislation, particularly given the opportunities for financial benefit by acquisitors. However, if some reasonable balance cannot be achieved in Western society, another culture will innovate more and we will gradually have less intellectual pleasure. That's not a bad thing - cultures do age and decline - but impediments to intellectual activity should be one of the considerations when giving advice to the young about where to pursue their studies and later writing. One of the nicer aspects of old copyright legislation in Canada, as I understand it from having read a book on the subject (now outdated), is that if a work was out of print anyone could apply to the registrar of copyrights to reprint it. The registrar would contact the copyright holder to give them a first option to republish, but if they did not, then the new publisher could proceed. They had to pay a royalty of at least 10 pct to the copyright holder. That I liked because it kept good books from remaining out of print and maintained some balance between the various rights. Just my opinion, Ken R.