copyright and all of intellectual property was meant to "promote the progress of science and useful arts"---it has since eroded it and held it up for ownership by capitalists public domain was originally 14 years after publication. 14 years ago was 2010---imagine if everything before 2010 was in the public domain. All video games. All movies. All books, songs, etc. How much of our culture could be preserved? Compare that to now. How much of what you imagined is owned by a corporation? Managed by shareholders? Has the commons been fostered, or has it been divided into fiefdoms?