T certainly has a passionate concern about copyright issues and I appreciate his posts. I agree with Jacob and T that there are certain dangers in an unlimited copyright. The loss of a public domain is but one of the concerns. The extension of the copyright benefits the publishing industry far more than composers and their families and unless copyright laws are rewritten only the writers of the so-called top forty music will continue to benefit. I have been associated with an organization that presents strictly traditional music, most of which is in the public domain. We have received notices and threats by BMI and ASCAP who demanded payments for the use of their music. We explained our purpose and asked if there was some type of arrangement or contract for organizations such as ours in which copyrighted music would only be performed on occasion and at best comprised only a small percentage of our total performance. Their response was that if we did one copyrighted song or a hundred the price was the same. The irony is that the heirs of the writers of songs we performed would never receive a penny of the royalties since none of the songs are on any top forty radio playlist. The copyright is certainly a good thing. My concern is what is a reasonable length for an effective copyright. I read an article a short time ago quoting an author who fretted each time he saw a his book leaving a library because he was not receiving payment for the use of work. I am hoping that was a bit of satire, but one never knows.