Re: Re: Copyright Expiration ?

I am intrigued by the idea of taking into consideration how long a book has
been out of print as well as life of the author plus X years.

One reason for copyright is to establish conditions that nurture creators,
because all society benefits from what is created. If someone creates a
work but then that work is not made available to society for a significant
length of time, it seems that copyright isn't fulfilling its whole purpose.

There are problems with this point of view, of course. Suppose I write a
book then disavow it--surely I should have the right to keep it
unavailable. Or suppose I really want to make my book available but no one
will publish it--it's not fair to punish me by taking away my copyright.
(Plus that creates an incentive for works to not get published during the
copyright period).

But it's an interesting idea that helps tackle the orphan works problem.

Beth


On Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 8:53 AM, joseph h <joe9438-/[email protected]> wrote:

>
>
> On 02/08/2012 5:04 AM, Dave wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > --- In [email protected]
> > <mailto:ebook-community%40yahoogroups.com>, joseph h <joe9438@...>
> wrote:
> >
> <snip>
> >
> > >
> > > And yes, there are many vigorous arguments about what copyright term
> > and
> > > management might be changed to, but the current law is the one that
> > > operates at the moment.
> > >
> > > Joseph Harris
> > >
> > >
> > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> > >I have some general knowledge of the current US copyright law. I was
> > asking about potential changes to the law. If one limits the period
> > during which rights are protected one must provide a renewal mechanism
> > or, among others, you will have some extremely irate corporations who
> > own own fallow copyrights that they might want to reuse.
> >
>
> It is very unlikely the US would make any major changes unilaterally; it
> is now signatory to Berne, as well as belonging to WIPO and itself
> insisting on observance of international IP rules in trade agreements.
> The only major change in the past 20 years was the lengthening of
> post-life protection to 70 years.
>
> Copyright is pretty standard now internationally, with rights applying
> for the lifetime of the creator, but varying from 50 to 90 years for
> heirs. Terms for companies - Disney for example - are different.  There
> is no option for a rights owner to vary the term, but obviously owners
> of their individual rights can licence or give them away or exercise
> them on any terms they choose.
>
> Trade Marks are a different IP, where renewal is part of the process.
> Renewal for copyright no longer operates anywhere, so far as I know.
>
> As I said, there are vigorous discussions about term, and have been for
> as long as I've been interested in the area. In my opinion, the nature
> of the protection is such that one could not apply different terms to
> the right to control the issue of copies; which I think you were
> suggesting between print and digital.
>
> However, that said, I know of no logic or set of basic assumptions that
> supports any particular term. The trend, since since author rights were
> introduced in the Queen Anne Act at the beginning of the eighteenth
> century, has been to make protection longer. Berne, about midway between
> then and now, started at life plus 50.
>
> If you do have a good argument to support your idea I would certainly be
> interested in it.
>
> Joseph Harris
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
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