Copyright Extension Moves To Japan

Looks like the latest battle over copyright extension is about to take place in Japan, where the new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, has vowed to extend certain copyrights .

Specifically, he says that posthumous copyrights for compositions should last 70 years, rather than 50. This makes no sense, no matter what basis you judge copyright on.

Copyright is supposed to serve a simple purpose: to encourage the creation of new works. It never makes sense to extend copyright on...