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More details from petition creator

Copyright is a privilege enabling owners to prevent copying of protected work for a limited period. Copyright exists to encourage creative work, but extends far beyond the period needed to achieve this. Excessive copyright terms are counterproductive because this discourages new work which might infringe upon older work whose ownership is untraceable. Here permission to reuse an image, sound or film clip is unobtainable, but there is no guarantee the reuser will not be sued long after the ownership of the older work has become unknown.

Writers, artists and musicians do not claim that having shorter copyright periods would have prevented them from creating work which they have created. Corporate investment in artistic productions is made on the anticipation of satisfactory return within 20 years or less. Therefore copyright terms greater than 20 years cannot be justified morally, artistically or economically. This law needs to be changed if it is not to be held in public contempt.

Current signatories

Richard Kay, the Petition Creator, joined by:

• Russell Odom
• Darren Austin
• andrew jenkins
• CAMILO MESIAS
• Sunil Kalra
• Ken Hough
• Nat Queen
• Iain Fothergill
• Cathy Wattebot
• Mike Brockington
• Giacomo Lacava
• Richard Middleton
• Matt
• Dick King
• S King
• Jeff
• James
• Geoffrey Clare
• john webb
• John Waters
• Dan Wolfe
• Christopher Zychowicz
• Ivan Mytnik-Gonta
• Andrew Baxter
• Michael Sheldon
• Steven Graham
• Nick Robinson
• Paul Coghlan
• Stephen Kay
• Jenny Kay
• Leslie Ronald Kay
• Rosie Kay
• Andrew Main
• Guy Johnston
• Richard Carling
• Mark Hewett
• Aaron K Weller
• Dominic Sweetman
• trevor armstrong
• Nigel Wadsworth
• James Rollison
• ben havell
• Michael Gordon
• K Rous
• Mat