Lawrence Lessig/blog/2002/11/27/1203/7

responds to::Lawrence Lessig/blog/2002/11/27/1203 when posted::December 4, 2002 12:02 AM author::Jason Schultz I guess one point of the figures is more to say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, i.e. while a very small percentage of works may still be "profitable" (something one could also question in the age of Internet distribution), why should that keep the other 97% out of the public's hands? The public (especially researchers, academics, students, etc) may well find those more valuable in terms of information about our national history and cultural heritage than the 2.3% still available.

As for the film #s, they are certainly speculative. Still, how many films from 1927-1946 are really available at Blockbuster or NetFlix? 50? 100? I can't imagine more than that. 50 or 100 out of more than 30,000 still seems like a large price to pay for such a small return to the public.