Denying The Public Domain Has A Very Real Cost | Techdirt

"[I]n theory, copyright is supposed to be a bargain between the public and content creators, where the creators get a limited monopoly, and the public gets more content added to the public domain in the long run (increasingly getting longer). But, when it comes time for copyright extension debates, the only people heard from tend to be the content creators. The main assumption is often that there's no "cost" to keeping works protected by copyright. In fact politicians have, at times, even argued that copyright doesn't have an impact on price of works, as they argued in favor of copyright extension. Rufus Pollock has now released two new studies on the size and value of the public domain in the EU, which shows that this argument is false. The public domain creates plenty of value and extending copyright does have a very real cost...."