[d@DCC] Length of Copyright / Rabble Rumble / GlocalCN

[Alan DeKok]

>   This comment makes me curious about thoughts in this forum on the length 
> of copyright.  Some questions:
> 
>   a) Do we separate the length of moral rights (right to be associated 
>      with work, etc) and economic priviledge?

  Yes.  Moral rights should last nearly forever.  There are well-known
authors who have been dead for thousands of years.

  Putting your name on work which you did not create is called
"plagarism", which is independent of copyright.

>   b) Do we separate different types of works?  Length of copyright for 
>      software different than for movies which are different than for 
>      novels...

  It sounds good to me, but it might be hard to administer.

>   c) Do we separate different types of creators/copyright holders?
>      Origional Creators (Which are people), VAR's/Corporations (which can 
>      hold copyright, but are not creators), Government (abolish crown 
>      copyright, or at least the economic priviledge aspects of crown
>      copyright?)

  I'm not sure how this would apply to copyright.  People are
perfectly free to sell or give away their copyright to other people,
to corporations, or to governments.  Creating a different standard of
copyright for different people/corporations would be prejudiced, and
problematic.

  I could see non-creators having *lesser* rights under the copyright
law.  E.g. creators get protection during their lifetime.  But
corporations get (say) 30 years protection on creations that they
buy.  This would avoid the "immortal Mickey Mouse" problem which is
going on in the States.

>   d) Do we tie the length only to the publishing date, and not morbidly to 
>      the death of the origional creator in the case of works where 
>      copyright is still retained by the creator?

  I agree.  I don't understand why someone who lives to be 100 gets
more copyright protection than someone who dies at 30.  There's
something fundamentally unjust about it.

  I don't see why copyright exists after the creators death.  I
understand that the creators family may want to control *moral*
rights.  This may possibly include use of someone's image, or the
sound of their voice.

  Alan DeKok.
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