Re: Re: Amazon remotely deletes 1984

From: "Erica Frank" 
> On 7/25/09, joseph harris <[email protected]> wrote:
>> From: "Erica Frank"
>>
>>  Especially since a good
>>  > deal of copyright law hinges on "publication date."
>> Not so sure about this. There are complications in the US because of past copyright
>> being so at variance with Berne. But new copyright since 1978 in the US is now all life
>> plus.
> 
> It's life-plus for published works. Unpublished works are covered by
> different laws. 

Sorry, Erica, but this isn't so. It is the work, published or unpublished, that is copyright, and the ownership is not affected. 

And I wasn't just talking about length of rights, but
> copyright protections--they're stronger for unpublished works.

How do you make this out? Only in the US and one or two other countries are protection of *published* works stronger if they are registered at the copyright office. This is counter to Berne, of course, but a relic of US copyright-past.

> Figuring out what "unpublished" is, is a bit blurrier these days.
> 
> Is an email that's cc'd to a dozen people "published?" How about a
> thesis that's copied to a review board, and archived at a university?
> Is a blog post "published?" Are the posts in this email
> community/mailing list "published?"

But this doesn't matter for full copyright protection. Expression of the idea in a work, whether on scrap paper or written by hand in script, or typed into a digital file or on to paper,  is enough to make any work copyright. 

> Magazines and such have their own practical definitions; when they buy
> "unpublished" works, they mean "works that our readers haven't had the
> opportunity to see before." Many magazines will buy short stories that
> have been online, as long as they've only been in locked forums, or as
> long as they're removed before the print version comes out. Since
> their interest in unpublished work is entirely capitalistic, that
> works fine.

Again that makes no difference to the laws of copyright, or their practical effect. These used to be known as 'rights' and would be versed as '1st US women's magazine rights', '2nd New Zealand Daily newspaper rights', 'world rights' and so on in infinite variation. Some journals [I think the New Yorker is one] buy the whole copyright from the owner.

> 
> Paladin Press was sued for aiding & abetting a murder, for its book
> "Hit Man." But in that case, there was no question that they selected
> & influenced the content of the book.

I also cannot imagine that that was under copyright law. It seems much more akin to conspiracy or incitement.


> 
> I believe the resolution requires a lot of discussion, in a lot of
> different areas, from a lot of perspectives, because there are many
> complex issues involved, and no single panel of people, no matter how
> well-informed, is going to consider all the issues involved.

I am not sure what you would want to resolve in some final way. Tensions and the market palce tend to have a lot to do with results of this sort. But one does wage the fights as necessary to keep business models realistic.

> 
> I also believe we need a lot of awareness-raising; I don't think most
> of the general public really understands how copyright changed when
> works no longer needed to register or even affix a copyright
> notification. The combination of that, with home computers & printers,
> meant the previous legal foundation of published vs not became
> exceedingly blurry.

Outsisde the US that has been the way for over a century. It seems a much simpler system. The problem is the constant one: new methods bring those who would takes for free or skim off the top to the fore hoping to make hay whiel the sun shines. But even Pirate Bay has been sold by its oh-so-principled founder to a company that intends to follow the legal path!


Joseph

Joseph Harris  -  Debt Control Man
author: Control Your Debt Crisis on Your Own Terms
blog: http://debtcontrolman.wordpress.com
http://www.controlyourdebtcrisis.co.uk
debt dictionary: http://www.controlyourdebtcrisis.co.uk/debtwiki/



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