why i respect authors.

Spider Robinson is, to me at least, best known for his work on the Callahan series of science fiction novels. Anything that involves a bar, aliens, adaptations of mythical creatures, time travel, and most importantly, genuine humanity gluing it all together, is worth my money.

He recently posted a story related to copyright on his site, written in 1983(!). I'm not at all surprised he won the Best Short Story Hugo award for it, because it manages to not only hold up 24 years later, but still manages to be the best, simplest, and most touching explanation for why continually expanding copyright may be the worst idea in the history of man.

The link is here, and the story is called Melancholy Elephants. I strongly suggest you read it, as even paraphrasing the arguments within in the story was enough to convince a good friend of mine (and staunch Disney supporter) that expanding copyrights further and further is one of the worst things a society can do, or have done to it.