AsABlackMan

:D Stone Cold man.

You may or may not know this, but you were really popular in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa in the mid-late 1990s! A whole generation of kids grew up idolizing you. This isn't a question, it's more nostalgia really.

Eh. Why not?

Should assisted suicide for people who live with debilitating treatment-resistant depression be an option?

How are you still licensed to practice law, given that you're advising clients on what is still illegal activity? Does your state bar have an opinion on this?

EDIT: I'm a lawyer too, Reddit. I know that different states have different rules. I also know that, as a rule, the state bars generally frown on assisting individuals to break federal law.

Here OP is a practicing attorney advising clients who are breaking federal law and he knows it. This can get your license revoked really fast in some places. I am curious how his jurisdiction resolves this tension.

We are reddit

You will be assimilated

Go take a shit now

I think it's a touch disingenuous to talk about copyrights and patents as if they're the same.

Copyright only applies to work in a fixed medium and goes on for, practically, ever (life of author + 70 years). And really, for every author who bemoans the shrinking pool of the public domain the answer is simple - bequeath your works to the public domain upon your death. Or after a certain number of years once you feel you've made enough money (if at all) from your work. No need for an Act of Congress. The power remains entirely with rights holders (to the extent they don't assign them to soulless corporations).

Patents expire either 17 or 20 years from filing, and that's inclusive of the time it takes to file to when you get the patent. If it takes four years that means you have 13-17 years of monopoly to exploit and then your wonder invention goes to the public domain. You could argue that the period is too long, but it's not remotely close to life+70.