Via Scott Rosenberg (somehow I missed this at Delong’s site), an excellent discussion from Semi-Daily Journal on copyright extension. The ending is a killer:
“It will mean, “We’re not going to tell you where the line is exactly–that would be dicta, and we hate dicta, except when we don’t–but we are telling you that if you move to extend copyright again, you first need to ask yourselves the Clint Eastwood question: ‘Do you feel lucky?'””
Copyright powers weren’t meant to enforce rights forever–only long enough to promote creativity. Disney’s shareholders don’t have much to do with creativity.