Derek Khanna writes that a more permanent solution is needed to the underlying legal mess, "ensuring consumer rights, protecting small businesses, and fostering innovation." [The Atlantic]

  • Stooge

    The “right” to unlock your cellphone doesn’t solve anything that an obligation doesn’t solve better.
    Consumer interests are far better served by obliging carriers to:
    i) unlock all phones for international roaming
    ii) unlock all phones sold without a contract
    Ii) automatically unlock phones at the end of the contract or upon payment of an early termination charge.

  • Ianto_Jones

    Additionally, copyright law in general needs to be completely rewritten so that it benefits individual artists and society as a whole, not just a handful of multi-billion dollar corporations. We can start by reducing the copyright term to 10 years before something enters the public domain. No more “Life + 100 years + infinite extensions”.

    • oasisob1

      10 years seems a bit short, really. Make it 30-40 or death of the artist, whichever comes first.

      • Tynam

        LSE did an economic study a few years back, taking into account changes in economics, and came up with an optimal term of 14 years.  There’s room to question the assumptions, but 40 is almost certainly way too long.
        (Up to 15 is when most of the income happens anyway.)

        I’ve never liked “death of the artist” as a factor; it’s a stupid plan.  Why give publishers a motive for murder?  Why should my royalty payments be affected by whether I’ve had a heart attack so they’re going to my heirs instead?