[PGCanada] An Immodest Proposal

[Carlo Traverso]

>>>>> "Jen" == Jen Zed <jenzed at gmail.com> writes:

    Jen> On Sat, 19 Mar 2005 21:02:21 +0100, Carlo Traverso
    Jen> <traverso at dm.unipi.it> wrote:
    >> >>>>> "Jen" == Jen Zed <jenzed at gmail.com> writes:
    >> 
    Jen> It would be good if some of those books were only available
    Jen> from PG-Canada.
    >>  This is impossible: if PG-CAN is truly PG, they can be posted
    >> at least at other life+50 PG, e.g. GP-Europa, that is in
    >> Serbia, and is starting now.

    Jen> Okay, time to admit that legal stuff makes my eyes glaze
    Jen> over. So I've just gone back to the mailing list archives and
    Jen> read the threads about DP-EU, Serbia, and life+50. Are these
    Jen> statements true?

    Jen> 1. Serbia, where PG-EU is currently hosted, copyright is
    Jen> life+50, 

Yes

         but under pressure to harmonize to Europe's
    Jen> life+70. 

I don't think so. Serbia is currently not in the EU, and is under much
wilder pressure (they were under bombing attacks a few years
ago). Would you say that currently Iraq is under pressure to change
his copyright law?  It will be under pressure in 10-20 years from now,
maybe earlier. PG-EU might help Serbia to resist these pressures.

         If Serbia changes to life+70, their life+50 books
    Jen> will need a new home in a life+50 country. Currently, there
    Jen> is no other PG in a life+50 country.

    Jen> 2. In Canada, copyright is life+50. Similar to PG-EU, if we
    Jen> had life+50 book on the site and the copyright laws were
    Jen> changed to extend the term, we'd need to move those books to
    Jen> a site hosted in a life+50 country.

    Jen> 3. Various other countries (Chile, Iceland, Japan, South
    Jen> Korea, New Zealand, etc) have life+50 copyright laws, so a
    Jen> life+50 PG could be hosted in those countries as well.

    Jen> What I'm wondering is that given that we could publish on
    Jen> PG-EU anything we could publish on PG-CA, what's the reason
    Jen> for building PG-Canada?

    Jen>   - because it might help bulwark against extensions to
    Jen> Canada's copyright law?  - because it would provide a home to
    Jen> PG-EU life+50 books should Serbian copyright laws change, and
    Jen> allow the continuation of work on life+50 books?  - because
    Jen> it provides the opportunity to implement a second-generation
    Jen> PG infrastructure?

I completely agree; we need as many PG-50 as possible, for all these reasons.

Carlo