[d@DCC] Copyfight: A Tale of Two Cities

[Russell McOrmond]

On Thu, 26 Sep 2002, Jason Young wrote:

> 	The real world issues at stake are the many works that are 
> still used by their owners and are important sources of revenue. 
> These would enter the public domain 20 years "earlier" than if the 
> Sonny Bono extension is declared unconstitutional.


  I guess I prefer to use the "no new works released into the public
domain for 20 years" way of wording this ;-)

> They argue that this extension, the 14th in the last 50 years, simply
> brings US law closer to the European norm and does not mean that the
> pattern will continue to eternity.

  Where does the 95 years for unnatural 'persons' come from (other than
Mickey Mouse)?  The Europeans seem to currently be using 70 years, which
itself is way too long. 


<RANT>

Is there a subtext suggesting that these unnatural persons should only
have a lifespan on 25 years?  We can't even get them to enforce extremely
serious anti-trust violations in a country that still has capital
punishment for natural persons!

</RANT>


  It is unfortunately true about the 50 -->70 for natural persons (IE:  
actual creators) bringing the USA inline with the Europeans.

I looked at:
  http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/lif/reg/en_register_1720.html

  The only reference I could find was from 1993
http://europa.eu.int/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celexapi!prod!CELEXnumdoc&lg=EN&numdoc=31993L0098&model=guichett


COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 93/98/EEC of 29 October 1993 harmonizing the term of 
protection of copyright and certain related rights

...

Article 1
Duration of authors' rights

1. The rights of an author of a literary or artistic work within the
meaning of Article 2 of the Berne Convention shall run for the life of the
author and for 70 years after his death, irrespective of the date when the
work is lawfully made available to the public.

2. In the case of a work of joint authorship the term referred to in
paragraph 1 shall be calculated from the death of the last surviving
author.

3. In the case of anonymous or pseudonymous works, the term of protection
shall run for seventy years after the work is lawfully made available to
the public. However, when the pseudonym adopted by the author leaves no
doubt as to his identity, or if the author discloses his identity during
the period referred to in the first sentence, the term of protection
applicable shall be that laid down in paragraph 1.

4. Where a Member State provides for particular provisions on copyright in
respect of collective works or for a legal person to be designated as the
rightholder, the term of protection shall be calculated according to the
provisions of paragraph 3, except if the natural persons who have created
the work as such are identified as such in the versions of the work which
are made available to the public. This paragraph is without prejudice to
the rights of identified authors whose identifiable contributions are
included in such works, to which contributions paragraph 1 or 2 shall
apply.

5. Where a work is published in volumes, parts, instalments, issues or
episodes and the term of protection runs from the time when the work was
lawfully made available to the public, the term of protection shall run
for each such item separately.

6. In the case of works for which the term of protection is not calculated
from the death of the author or authors and which have not been lawfully
made available to the public within seventy years from their creation, the
protection shall terminate.

---
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
 See http://weblog.flora.ca/ for announcements, activities, and opinions
 Submission to Innovation Strategy         | No2Violence in Politics
 http://www.flora.ca/innovation-2002.shtml | http://www.no-dot.ca/

--
For (un)subscription information, posting guidelines and
links to other related sites please see http://www.digital-copyright.ca