[CPI-UA] EU COPYRIGHT LAWS SPAWN 'FREE-SWAPPING ZONE' FOR OLDIES (fwd)

[Russell McOrmond]

  I hate just forwarding links, but this is an interesting enough issue to
be worthy of our investigating.

  The disparity on copyright term is going the wrong way - rather than
agreeing on 50 or less, WIPO is trying to push the 75-95 year term from
the USSA.

---
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
 Any 'hardware assist' for communications, whether it be eye-glasses, 
 VCR's, or personal computers, must be under the control of the citizen 
 and not a third party.   -- http://www.flora.ca/russell/

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 9 Jan 2003 11:46:09 -0500
From: Michael Gurstein <mgurst at vcn.bc.ca>
Reply-To: cpi-ua at vancouvercommunity.net
To: cpi-ua at vancouvercommunity.net
Subject: [CPI-UA] EU COPYRIGHT LAWS SPAWN 'FREE-SWAPPING ZONE' FOR OLDIES

EU COPYRIGHT LAWS SPAWN 'FREE-SWAPPING ZONE' FOR OLDIES
European and Canadian copyright protections for audio recordings last just
50 years, compared with 95 years in the U.S., a disparity that has spawned
a boomlet in legitimate sales of golden oldies from 1950s artists, ranging
from Miles Davis to Elvis Presley. The expiration of music copyrights
overseas just adds one more piece to an antipiracy puzzle that is growing
increasingly complex. "There are some implications for enforcement,
creating an additional wrinkle," says Neil Turkewitz, executive VP for
international affairs at the Recording Industry Association of America.
"But it doesn't affect the legality of a U.S. user accessing a foreign hard
drive and downloading a file." Record industry officials say they are
keeping an eye out for the emergence of Web sites that offer archives of
material that is in the public domain in a foreign country but still
illegal to trade freely in the U.S. If a Web-based service comes online, it
may be possible to block access to the site from the U.S. by going through
ISPs, says Turkewitz. Trying to shut down peer-to-peer services would be
more difficult, however, he acknowledges. That's part of the reason that
the RIAA has been pressuring European policy-makers to extend their
copyright protections to match those of the U.S., but so far those efforts
have met with little success. (CNet News.com 7 Jan 2003)
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-979532.html?tag=lh

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