Re: What's your take on the Supreme Court Ruling

On 19/01/2012 07:18, Robotech_Master wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 10:31 PM, Richard Seltzer<seltzer-LVbi7B8qMF5Wk0Htik3J/[email protected]>wrote:
>
>    
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/business/public-domain-works-can-be-copyri
>> ghted-anew-justices-rule.html
>>
>> Does this mean that Congress now has the Court's permission to take foreign
>> works that are now in the public-domain and put them back under copyright?
>>
>> Or does it mean that immediately/now those works are under copyright?
>>
>>      
> Given that this is a challenge to a law that went into effect in 2001, I
> expect that those works have already been removed from Gutenberg and other
> such sites quite some time since.
>    

Just to add an insight to Chris's answer to Richard. While, in the US 
prior to the US joining the Berne Convention, foreign books may have 
been considered public domain they were protected outside the US pretty 
much as US copyright law now applies. The convention requires 
signatories to respect the native rules of the works copyrighted in 
another country.

Joining the convention has caused a lot of apparent anomalies in the US. 
But rather than thinking of foreign works moving in and out of public 
domain it might be more meaningful to think of no longer ignoring the 
rights of those whose copyright vests in other parts of the world.

The NYT report suggests to me that sound thinking on the matter was 
expressed by the court. But do also note this was about music, where 
repetitious public use is more common than with books; and the complaint 
suggested a failure to comply with law for a decade by the appellants.

Joseph Harris


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