This was a difficult topic for me. On one hand I think that Mark Helprin makes a good point. His family shouldn't be stripped of their rights to his copyrighted work just because he has been dead for 70 years. Then again what will his work be worth 70 years from the day he dies? Google estimates the number of unique books in the world at 130 million. How many of those books will still be of interest 70 or even 14 years from now? It makes the issue of the copyright seem irrelevant to the family and the public if the family won't make any money from it and the public doesn't want it.
I can see how a copyright could be irritating to someone who wants to use copyrighted material. But they could always try asking for permission to use it. If that fails they could try to find something else to use or maybe even consider the possibility of creating something original.
Lawrence Lessig points out that "A person may use the copy by playing it, but he has no right to rob the author of the profit, by multiplying copies and disposing of them for his own use." So I don't understand why it is wrong for a person to make a copy of the cd they bought for a friend. Especially if that friend could not afford the cd and would not have purchased it anyway. No one is losing any money and your friend benefits. I realize that it would be unethical to make 10 copies, but I don't think it is a problem if a person wants to make one or two. I feel that once you buy something it is your right to use it however you want as long as you aren't hurting someone else and I don't think one copy will hurt anyone.
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