The Ethicist: Hollywood Property Values

Today, works owned by corporations are wrapped up for about 100 years, courtesy of the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, sometimes derided as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, because when the lucrative rodent was about to fall into the public domain, compliant legislators extended copyright's term.

Today, works owned by corporations are wrapped up for about 100 years, courtesy of the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, sometimes derided as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, because when the lucrative rodent was about to fall into the public domain, compliant legislators extended copyright's term.

And yet they unleashed their lawyers.

The Winklevosses, movie villains as buffoonish as those in any Disney cartoon, gleefully proposed giving their site the amber glow of Harvard snobbery, but they hardly invented that either.

The added twist is that while Disney, like its industry cohort, seeks an eternal hammerlock on its productions, many of them originate in our common literary heritage -- ''Cinderella,'' ''Snow White,'' ''The Little Mermaid.''

For Hollywood to thwart this by appropriating our common cultural legacy is as ethically dubious as plagiarism -- innovation, perhaps, but not actual progress.

Today, works owned by corporations are wrapped up for about 100 years, courtesy of the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, sometimes derided as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, because when the lucrative rodent was about to fall into the public domain, compliant legislators extended copyright's term.

It still occurs, as does the cha-cha, but the new Hollywood operates less by stealing other people's ideas than by girding its own with mighty armies of lawyers who claim everything the studio produces as its perpetual possession, a sort of legalistic King Midas: Everything I touch turns to mine.

»

''The Social Network'' poses this question: Did Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg steal the idea for the site from Harvard classmates?

PODCASTS of the Ethicist are available at NYTimes.com, iTunes and Yahoo.com.

This is a major expansion of copyright, and it stifles creativity.

Such an overreaching concept of intellectual property obstructs the exchange of ideas, the referencing and reworking of earlier works that stimulate invention.

Isn't it even richer now that the movie has garnered eight Oscar nominations?

This is a major expansion of copyright, and it stifles creativity.

The Winklevosses, movie villains as buffoonish as those in any Disney cartoon, gleefully proposed giving their site the amber glow of Harvard snobbery, but they hardly invented that either.

The added twist is that while Disney, like its industry cohort, seeks an eternal hammerlock on its productions, many of them originate in our common literary heritage -- ''Cinderella,'' ''Snow White,'' ''The Little Mermaid.''

The added twist is that while Disney, like its industry cohort, seeks an eternal hammerlock on its productions, many of them originate in our common literary heritage -- ''Cinderella,'' ''Snow White,'' ''The Little Mermaid.''

My row at a Writers Guild screening of ''The Social Network'' posed this one: Isn't it a little rich to examine that issue in a Hollywood movie, the product of an industry often portrayed as a snake pit, where one snake is apt to swipe the work of another?

»

''The Social Network'' poses this question: Did Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg steal the idea for the site from Harvard classmates?

Today, works owned by corporations are wrapped up for about 100 years, courtesy of the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, sometimes derided as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, because when the lucrative rodent was about to fall into the public domain, compliant legislators extended copyright's term.

This is a major expansion of copyright, and it stifles creativity.

The movie is opaque about that: Zuckerberg reached a settlement with his accusers, incuding the Winklevoss twins.

Hence Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution seeks ''to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.''

For Hollywood to thwart this by appropriating our common cultural legacy is as ethically dubious as plagiarism -- innovation, perhaps, but not actual progress.

»

''The Social Network'' poses this question: Did Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg steal the idea for the site from Harvard classmates?

The founders did not design copyright to enrich some colonial Warner Brothers but to make ours a land of innovation.

The founders did not design copyright to enrich some colonial Warner Brothers but to make ours a land of innovation.

»

''The Social Network'' poses this question: Did Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg steal the idea for the site from Harvard classmates?

It still occurs, as does the cha-cha, but the new Hollywood operates less by stealing other people's ideas than by girding its own with mighty armies of lawyers who claim everything the studio produces as its perpetual possession, a sort of legalistic King Midas: Everything I touch turns to mine.

E-MAIL queries to [email protected], or send them to the Ethicist, The New York Times Magazine, 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y.

My row at a Writers Guild screening of ''The Social Network'' posed this one: Isn't it a little rich to examine that issue in a Hollywood movie, the product of an industry often portrayed as a snake pit, where one snake is apt to swipe the work of another?

Today, works owned by corporations are wrapped up for about 100 years, courtesy of the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, sometimes derided as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, because when the lucrative rodent was about to fall into the public domain, compliant legislators extended copyright's term.

For Hollywood to thwart this by appropriating our common cultural legacy is as ethically dubious as plagiarism -- innovation, perhaps, but not actual progress.

Such an overreaching concept of intellectual property obstructs the exchange of ideas, the referencing and reworking of earlier works that stimulate invention.

Consider an Eric Clapton guitar solo.

The Winklevosses, movie villains as buffoonish as those in any Disney cartoon, gleefully proposed giving their site the amber glow of Harvard snobbery, but they hardly invented that either.

»

''The Social Network'' poses this question: Did Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg steal the idea for the site from Harvard classmates?

The Winklevosses, movie villains as buffoonish as those in any Disney cartoon, gleefully proposed giving their site the amber glow of Harvard snobbery, but they hardly invented that either.

Such an overreaching concept of intellectual property obstructs the exchange of ideas, the referencing and reworking of earlier works that stimulate invention.

You can order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, please click here or use the "Reprints" tool that appears next to any article.

For Hollywood to thwart this by appropriating our common cultural legacy is as ethically dubious as plagiarism -- innovation, perhaps, but not actual progress.

The added twist is that while Disney, like its industry cohort, seeks an eternal hammerlock on its productions, many of them originate in our common literary heritage -- ''Cinderella,'' ''Snow White,'' ''The Little Mermaid.''

He sometimes lifts whole phrases from Robert Johnson or Muddy Waters, and no harm done.

In a kind of live-action final irony, before entering that ''Social Network'' screening, you had to surrender your cellphone to uniformed guards, to prevent your using its camera to steal Columbia Pictures' intellectual property.

The original term of copyright law was 14 years, granting those authors and inventors a chance to profit from their new ideas and then making those ideas widely available to inspire yet more.

Visit www.nytreprints.com for samples and additional information.

Making such allusions and connections is one way new ideas are created.

The added twist is that while Disney, like its industry cohort, seeks an eternal hammerlock on its productions, many of them originate in our common literary heritage -- ''Cinderella,'' ''Snow White,'' ''The Little Mermaid.''

You can order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, please click here or use the "Reprints" tool that appears next to any article.

Isn't it even richer now that the movie has garnered eight Oscar nominations?

For Hollywood to thwart this by appropriating our common cultural legacy is as ethically dubious as plagiarism -- innovation, perhaps, but not actual progress.

»

''The Social Network'' poses this question: Did Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg steal the idea for the site from Harvard classmates?

But if the ghost of Robert Johnson operated like a movie studio wished to, he'd crush Clapton under the weight of copyright law.

The Winklevosses, movie villains as buffoonish as those in any Disney cartoon, gleefully proposed giving their site the amber glow of Harvard snobbery, but they hardly invented that either.

The original term of copyright law was 14 years, granting those authors and inventors a chance to profit from their new ideas and then making those ideas widely available to inspire yet more.

In a kind of live-action final irony, before entering that ''Social Network'' screening, you had to surrender your cellphone to uniformed guards, to prevent your using its camera to steal Columbia Pictures' intellectual property.

Today, works owned by corporations are wrapped up for about 100 years, courtesy of the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, sometimes derided as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, because when the lucrative rodent was about to fall into the public domain, compliant legislators extended copyright's term.

You can order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, please click here or use the "Reprints" tool that appears next to any article.

This is a major expansion of copyright, and it stifles creativity.

Today, works owned by corporations are wrapped up for about 100 years, courtesy of the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, sometimes derided as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, because when the lucrative rodent was about to fall into the public domain, compliant legislators extended copyright's term.

Hence Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution seeks ''to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.''

The original term of copyright law was 14 years, granting those authors and inventors a chance to profit from their new ideas and then making those ideas widely available to inspire yet more.

Hence Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution seeks ''to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.''

Such an overreaching concept of intellectual property obstructs the exchange of ideas, the referencing and reworking of earlier works that stimulate invention.

You can order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, please click here or use the "Reprints" tool that appears next to any article.

»

''The Social Network'' poses this question: Did Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg steal the idea for the site from Harvard classmates?

Today, works owned by corporations are wrapped up for about 100 years, courtesy of the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, sometimes derided as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, because when the lucrative rodent was about to fall into the public domain, compliant legislators extended copyright's term.

You can order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, please click here or use the "Reprints" tool that appears next to any article.

It still occurs, as does the cha-cha, but the new Hollywood operates less by stealing other people's ideas than by girding its own with mighty armies of lawyers who claim everything the studio produces as its perpetual possession, a sort of legalistic King Midas: Everything I touch turns to mine.

The founders did not design copyright to enrich some colonial Warner Brothers but to make ours a land of innovation.

My row at a Writers Guild screening of ''The Social Network'' posed this one: Isn't it a little rich to examine that issue in a Hollywood movie, the product of an industry often portrayed as a snake pit, where one snake is apt to swipe the work of another?

You can order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, please click here or use the "Reprints" tool that appears next to any article.

Hence Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution seeks ''to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.''

Today, works owned by corporations are wrapped up for about 100 years, courtesy of the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, sometimes derided as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, because when the lucrative rodent was about to fall into the public domain, compliant legislators extended copyright's term.

It still occurs, as does the cha-cha, but the new Hollywood operates less by stealing other people's ideas than by girding its own with mighty armies of lawyers who claim everything the studio produces as its perpetual possession, a sort of legalistic King Midas: Everything I touch turns to mine.

Such an overreaching concept of intellectual property obstructs the exchange of ideas, the referencing and reworking of earlier works that stimulate invention.

For Hollywood to thwart this by appropriating our common cultural legacy is as ethically dubious as plagiarism -- innovation, perhaps, but not actual progress.

Today, works owned by corporations are wrapped up for about 100 years, courtesy of the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, sometimes derided as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, because when the lucrative rodent was about to fall into the public domain, compliant legislators extended copyright's term.

The Winklevosses, movie villains as buffoonish as those in any Disney cartoon, gleefully proposed giving their site the amber glow of Harvard snobbery, but they hardly invented that either.

The Winklevosses, movie villains as buffoonish as those in any Disney cartoon, gleefully proposed giving their site the amber glow of Harvard snobbery, but they hardly invented that either.

In a kind of live-action final irony, before entering that ''Social Network'' screening, you had to surrender your cellphone to uniformed guards, to prevent your using its camera to steal Columbia Pictures' intellectual property.

But this thought arises: what idea?

Hence Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution seeks ''to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.''

My row at a Writers Guild screening of ''The Social Network'' posed this one: Isn't it a little rich to examine that issue in a Hollywood movie, the product of an industry often portrayed as a snake pit, where one snake is apt to swipe the work of another?

DRAWING (DRAWING BY MATTHEW WOODSON)

Hence Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution seeks ''to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.''

E-MAIL queries to [email protected], or send them to the Ethicist, The New York Times Magazine, 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y.

The original term of copyright law was 14 years, granting those authors and inventors a chance to profit from their new ideas and then making those ideas widely available to inspire yet more.

My row at a Writers Guild screening of ''The Social Network'' posed this one: Isn't it a little rich to examine that issue in a Hollywood movie, the product of an industry often portrayed as a snake pit, where one snake is apt to swipe the work of another?

You can order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, please click here or use the "Reprints" tool that appears next to any article.

He sometimes lifts whole phrases from Robert Johnson or Muddy Waters, and no harm done.

It still occurs, as does the cha-cha, but the new Hollywood operates less by stealing other people's ideas than by girding its own with mighty armies of lawyers who claim everything the studio produces as its perpetual possession, a sort of legalistic King Midas: Everything I touch turns to mine.

In a kind of live-action final irony, before entering that ''Social Network'' screening, you had to surrender your cellphone to uniformed guards, to prevent your using its camera to steal Columbia Pictures' intellectual property.

My row at a Writers Guild screening of ''The Social Network'' posed this one: Isn't it a little rich to examine that issue in a Hollywood movie, the product of an industry often portrayed as a snake pit, where one snake is apt to swipe the work of another?

Hence Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution seeks ''to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.''

My row at a Writers Guild screening of ''The Social Network'' posed this one: Isn't it a little rich to examine that issue in a Hollywood movie, the product of an industry often portrayed as a snake pit, where one snake is apt to swipe the work of another?

Such an overreaching concept of intellectual property obstructs the exchange of ideas, the referencing and reworking of earlier works that stimulate invention.

Making such allusions and connections is one way new ideas are created.

E-MAIL queries to [email protected], or send them to the Ethicist, The New York Times Magazine, 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y.

The movie is opaque about that: Zuckerberg reached a settlement with his accusers, incuding the Winklevoss twins.

10018, and include a daytime phone number.

Hence Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution seeks ''to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.''

Forever.

MySpace, a similar social-networking site, already existed, and CU Community was up and running at Columbia University.

The original term of copyright law was 14 years, granting those authors and inventors a chance to profit from their new ideas and then making those ideas widely available to inspire yet more.

Such an overreaching concept of intellectual property obstructs the exchange of ideas, the referencing and reworking of earlier works that stimulate invention.

Visit www.nytreprints.com for samples and additional information.

The added twist is that while Disney, like its industry cohort, seeks an eternal hammerlock on its productions, many of them originate in our common literary heritage -- ''Cinderella,'' ''Snow White,'' ''The Little Mermaid.''

Hence Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution seeks ''to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.''

Hence Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution seeks ''to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.''

Hence Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution seeks ''to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.''

For Hollywood to thwart this by appropriating our common cultural legacy is as ethically dubious as plagiarism -- innovation, perhaps, but not actual progress.

The added twist is that while Disney, like its industry cohort, seeks an eternal hammerlock on its productions, many of them originate in our common literary heritage -- ''Cinderella,'' ''Snow White,'' ''The Little Mermaid.''

Making such allusions and connections is one way new ideas are created.

The founders did not design copyright to enrich some colonial Warner Brothers but to make ours a land of innovation.

Such an overreaching concept of intellectual property obstructs the exchange of ideas, the referencing and reworking of earlier works that stimulate invention.

Today, works owned by corporations are wrapped up for about 100 years, courtesy of the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, sometimes derided as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, because when the lucrative rodent was about to fall into the public domain, compliant legislators extended copyright's term.

Hence Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution seeks ''to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.''

This is a major expansion of copyright, and it stifles creativity.

Hence Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution seeks ''to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.''

The added twist is that while Disney, like its industry cohort, seeks an eternal hammerlock on its productions, many of them originate in our common literary heritage -- ''Cinderella,'' ''Snow White,'' ''The Little Mermaid.''

The added twist is that while Disney, like its industry cohort, seeks an eternal hammerlock on its productions, many of them originate in our common literary heritage -- ''Cinderella,'' ''Snow White,'' ''The Little Mermaid.''

It still occurs, as does the cha-cha, but the new Hollywood operates less by stealing other people's ideas than by girding its own with mighty armies of lawyers who claim everything the studio produces as its perpetual possession, a sort of legalistic King Midas: Everything I touch turns to mine.

It still occurs, as does the cha-cha, but the new Hollywood operates less by stealing other people's ideas than by girding its own with mighty armies of lawyers who claim everything the studio produces as its perpetual possession, a sort of legalistic King Midas: Everything I touch turns to mine.

Today, works owned by corporations are wrapped up for about 100 years, courtesy of the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, sometimes derided as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, because when the lucrative rodent was about to fall into the public domain, compliant legislators extended copyright's term.

The added twist is that while Disney, like its industry cohort, seeks an eternal hammerlock on its productions, many of them originate in our common literary heritage -- ''Cinderella,'' ''Snow White,'' ''The Little Mermaid.''

My row at a Writers Guild screening of ''The Social Network'' posed this one: Isn't it a little rich to examine that issue in a Hollywood movie, the product of an industry often portrayed as a snake pit, where one snake is apt to swipe the work of another?

But if the ghost of Robert Johnson operated like a movie studio wished to, he'd crush Clapton under the weight of copyright law.

MySpace, a similar social-networking site, already existed, and CU Community was up and running at Columbia University.

It still occurs, as does the cha-cha, but the new Hollywood operates less by stealing other people's ideas than by girding its own with mighty armies of lawyers who claim everything the studio produces as its perpetual possession, a sort of legalistic King Midas: Everything I touch turns to mine.

In a kind of live-action final irony, before entering that ''Social Network'' screening, you had to surrender your cellphone to uniformed guards, to prevent your using its camera to steal Columbia Pictures' intellectual property.

It still occurs, as does the cha-cha, but the new Hollywood operates less by stealing other people's ideas than by girding its own with mighty armies of lawyers who claim everything the studio produces as its perpetual possession, a sort of legalistic King Midas: Everything I touch turns to mine.

In a kind of live-action final irony, before entering that ''Social Network'' screening, you had to surrender your cellphone to uniformed guards, to prevent your using its camera to steal Columbia Pictures' intellectual property.

Consider an Eric Clapton guitar solo.

In a kind of live-action final irony, before entering that ''Social Network'' screening, you had to surrender your cellphone to uniformed guards, to prevent your using its camera to steal Columbia Pictures' intellectual property.

But if the ghost of Robert Johnson operated like a movie studio wished to, he'd crush Clapton under the weight of copyright law.

The original term of copyright law was 14 years, granting those authors and inventors a chance to profit from their new ideas and then making those ideas widely available to inspire yet more.

MySpace, a similar social-networking site, already existed, and CU Community was up and running at Columbia University.

MySpace, a similar social-networking site, already existed, and CU Community was up and running at Columbia University.

You can order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, please click here or use the "Reprints" tool that appears next to any article.

Visit www.nytreprints.com for samples and additional information.

This copy is for your personal, noncommercial use only.

It still occurs, as does the cha-cha, but the new Hollywood operates less by stealing other people's ideas than by girding its own with mighty armies of lawyers who claim everything the studio produces as its perpetual possession, a sort of legalistic King Midas: Everything I touch turns to mine.

In a kind of live-action final irony, before entering that ''Social Network'' screening, you had to surrender your cellphone to uniformed guards, to prevent your using its camera to steal Columbia Pictures' intellectual property.

You can order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, please click here or use the "Reprints" tool that appears next to any article.

Today, works owned by corporations are wrapped up for about 100 years, courtesy of the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, sometimes derided as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, because when the lucrative rodent was about to fall into the public domain, compliant legislators extended copyright's term.

He sometimes lifts whole phrases from Robert Johnson or Muddy Waters, and no harm done.