Lawrence Lessig has become one of the strongest advocates of Net freedoms. He was catapulted into the limelite when he has asked by Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson to help out in the anti-trust suit against Microsoft. Now, he is going to the Supreme Court with a case attacking copyright law. Wired has the story [here].

It's not just a vision he's promoting — it's a cause...The vast majority of intellectual property used to be in the public domain; now most is available only by permission. He takes particular delight in singling out the Walt Disney Company as the symbol of how the past is using its power to kill the future...The [Sonny Bono Act] was only the latest extension of copyright — which the Constitution explicitly dictates should be "limited" — from an original 14 years to an automatic 70 past the death of the creator. Most notably, the law protects Steamboat Willie, the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, from slipping into the public domain...The big problem, as Lessig sees it, is that continual extensions of copyright prevent anything new from entering the public domain. This is most ironic, notes Lessig, since Disney dredged the public domain for its most lucrative properties...Because of the Bono Act, Lessig asserts, "no one can do to Disney as Disney did to the Brothers Grimm."

I'm holding my breath to see what the outcome of this case will be. Copyright Law is an important thing, both for society and business. It is an incentive for individuals to create and to disseminate their creations to society. However, when copyrights are extended too long, it becomes expensive or impossible for people to add new innovations onto previous innovations.
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