Re: Pro-IP bill passed the house: User-created conte nt providers, beware!
"Bob" <[email protected]> Mon, 26 May 2008 18:32:28 -0500
| Newsgroups | gmane.games.devel.general |
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| Message-ID | <A0F2FB0397CE4EF4AFE9441903E91D2F@Cripple> |
This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --===============1469119866== Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_007D_01C8BF5E.DA36BAB0" This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_007D_01C8BF5E.DA36BAB0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable ----- Original Message -----=20 From: "Jon Watte" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, May 26, 2008 2:47 PM Subject: Re: [GD-General] Pro-IP bill passed the house: User-created = conte nt providers, beware! > If you can't sell it, then you don't own it. And it's not property if=20 > you don't own it. In fact, if you couldn't at the very least license = it,=20 > then you couldn't make money off of copyright ownership. Once you = allow=20 > licenses, then you have to allow perpetual, exclusive licenses with=20 > right of sublicense, which is just a name difference from selling. >=20 > The fact that corporations can own original copyright is a = convenience,=20 > because it allows corporations to not have to track the lifetime of = all=20 > the creators of each individual work -- something which was next to=20 > impossible 50 years ago, and even today, what with databases and=20 > whatnot, might still be fraught with risk. The trade-off, for the=20 > corporation, is that the 50 years (or whatever the term is) starts=20 > ticking on the date of publication. I think that's a reasonable = trade-off. This thread got me interested in reading up on Copyright -- it has been = twenty to thirty years since I did so in any studious way, and then I = was mostly limited to the school and public libraries. At the time, I = believe Copyright in the US was limited to life+20 years. Now, according = to Project Gutenberg, it ranges from life+50 to life+70 years, leaving = little published since the 1920s in the universal public domain. So, I've been trolling the 'net and came across this very lawyerly = interpretation of Copyright as a "public service." Now, if this is the popular interpretation -- in short, that Copyright = protection only exists only to promote further work from an author -- = then perhaps we are already far outside the intent by allowing it's = existence beyond the lifetime of the author at all. With the convergence = of Copyright with Trademark, Patent, and other, more recent, = delineations of IP, this definition doesn't seem to fit -- but I'm no = lawyer. I can only say that this frames my own consideration of the subject = differently and I thought it may be of interest to others following this = thread. --bob ------=_NextPart_000_007D_01C8BF5E.DA36BAB0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=3DContent-Type content=3D"text/html; = charset=3Diso-8859-1"> <META content=3D"MSHTML 6.00.6001.18023" name=3DGENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>----- Original Message ----- </FONT> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>From: "Jon Watte" <</FONT><A=20 href=3D"mailto:[email protected]"><FONT face=3DArial=20 size=3D2>[email protected]</FONT></A><FONT face=3DArial = size=3D2>></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>To: <</FONT><A=20 href=3D"mailto:[email protected]"><FONT = face=3DArial=20 size=3D2>[email protected]</FONT></A><FONT = face=3DArial=20 size=3D2>></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Sent: Monday, May 26, 2008 2:47 = PM</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Subject: Re: [GD-General] Pro-IP bill = passed the=20 house: User-created conte nt providers, beware!</FONT></DIV></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial><BR><FONT size=3D2></FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>> If you can't sell it, then you = don't own it.=20 And it's not property if <BR>> you don't own it. In fact, if you = couldn't at=20 the very least license it, <BR>> then you couldn't make money off of=20 copyright ownership. Once you allow <BR>> licenses, then you have to = allow=20 perpetual, exclusive licenses with <BR>> right of sublicense, which = is just a=20 name difference from selling.<BR>> <BR>> The fact that = corporations can=20 own original copyright is a convenience, <BR>> because it allows = corporations=20 to not have to track the lifetime of all <BR>> the creators of each=20 individual work -- something which was next to <BR>> impossible 50 = years ago,=20 and even today, what with databases and <BR>> whatnot, might still be = fraught=20 with risk. The trade-off, for the <BR>> corporation, is that the 50 = years (or=20 whatever the term is) starts <BR>> ticking on the date of = publication. I=20 think that's a reasonable trade-off.<BR></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>This thread got me interested in = reading up on=20 Copyright -- it has been twenty to thirty years since I did so in = any=20 studious way, and then I was mostly limited to the school and public = libraries.=20 At the time, I believe Copyright in the US was limited to life+20 years. = Now,=20 according to Project Gutenberg, it ranges from life+50 to life+70 years, = leaving=20 little published since the 1920s in the universal public=20 domain.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>So, I've been trolling the 'net and = came across <A=20 href=3D"http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/misinterpreting-copyright.html">thi= s very=20 lawyerly interpretation of Copyright as a "public = service."</A></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Now, if this is the popular = interpretation -- in=20 short, that Copyright protection only exists only to = <EM>promote</EM>=20 further work from an author -- then perhaps we are already far = outside=20 the intent by allowing it's existence beyond the lifetime of the author = at all.=20 With the convergence of Copyright with Trademark, Patent, and = other, more=20 recent, delineations of IP, this definition doesn't seem to fit -- = but I'm=20 no lawyer.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>I can only say that this frames my = own=20 consideration of the subject differently and I thought it may be of = interest=20 to others following this thread.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>--bob</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV></BODY></HTML> ------=_NextPart_000_007D_01C8BF5E.DA36BAB0-- --===============1469119866== Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. 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