Larry Lessig has come up with a new proposal to win back the public domain now that the Supreme Court case to roll back the Sonny Bono act was repudiated by the scoundrels on the bench. He now proposes that after 50 years, all copyrighted works be subjected to a minimal tax for maintaining the copyright. After some window of time (he proposes 3 years), if the tax remains unpaid, then the copyright would be revoked and rights to the work in question would enter the public domain. While the the corporations in the copyright industry would, of course, pay their taxes, many other works that simply disappear due to the current long copyright duration would enter the public domain after 53 years. This proposal would take the form of an act of Congress, and we have a heck of a lot more influence over Congress than we do over the Supreme Court. I’m glad to see Lessig come back fighting immediately, and with a strong alternative proposal to boot.