Copyright is a funny thing

Courtesy lisnews.com, I learned some interesting (and seemingly opposing) copyright-related news.

Some guy is trying to convince others that he's copyrighted the @ sign. He's been sending out invoices with the low, low price of $10.00 that grants a one-year license for "Internet and E-Mail online communications." Unfortunately, I bet he's made some bucks. In contrast, Woody Guthrie's tune "This Land Is Your Land" now belongs to all of us. And I'm guessing Woody would have wanted it that way. Finally, in an act of defiance against copyright-protection-gone-mad, the Ann Arbor District Library is refusing to purchase Sony/BMG copy-protected CDs for the forseeable future. These suckers come armed with a rootkit that does evil things to your PC if you attempt to copy tunes onto your computer or MP3 player.