----- Original Message -----
From "D. Starner" <shalesller@writeme.com> Date Wed, 12 Jan 2005 14:02:06 -0800 To "Project Gutenberg Volunteer Discussion" <gutvol-d@lists.pglaf.org> Subject Re: [gutvol-d] Canadian and American copyrights
So copyright law in Canada is designed to screw the little guys?
Huh?
It's highly unfair to give one author life+50 because she's well known and give another publication+50 because he's not and "there's [some] chance [his name] is a pseudonym".
If the name is DEFINITELY a pseudonym (or the work is anonymous), and the true identity of the author does not, in the meantime, become known, then publication+50 is the rule. Publication+[regular term] is a common rule, around the world, for anonymous or pseudonymous works. Since the regular term of copyright is keyed to the life of the author in Berne countries, if the author wants to give his/her heirs the benefit of the posthumous term of copyright, then they can do so by taking credit for their work. However, since third parties must also rely on the term of copyright rules to determine what they, as third parties, are entitled to do with a work, it would be unfair to the public if they (we) were estopped from using an ancient work simply because no one knew who the author was, to calculate the term, to decide whether the work is public domain or not.
Anyway, I have a hard time believing that the Paul French novels are going to be in the public-domain in Canada in a decade because Isaac Asimov used a pseudonym when writing them.
If Isaac Asimov is known to be the true author of works under the pseudonym "Paul French", then the regular term applies: the work is no longer pseudonymous. What's really unfair is the idiotic 95-year term under the US code for anonymous or pseudonymous works.