[ryukafalz]

Not the physical collection itself, of course, but it definitely does apply to this part:

>When Gates moved the collection into the mine, he simultaneously erected a digital paywall, thereby securing the collection across both physical and digital space.

[kbutler]

Or, to rephrase, he created digital copies and made them available, requiring a fee for the service. (Just as bertmann had required fees).

This instance is more an argument in favor of long copyrights than against them, because without copyright, there would have been no bertmann archive to begin with, and without the long copyright, it wouldn't have been preserved and digitized. (See the sorry state of early Hollywood film archives).

That said, I absolutely agree that our current copyright regime is horribly excessive, both in duration and in the hugely abused anti-circumvention provisions.