On Mon, 31 Oct 2005, Bruce Albrecht wrote:
Dave Fawthrop writes:
| Although it seems to be fast becoming that way. With the increase in | globalisation, things like copyright law are becoming more standard and in | the respect unfortunately US law *is* becoming the standard.
AFAIK no country is following the US 1923 abberation in US Law.
The US is a life+70 country, with most works grandfathered into the terms of the previous copyright rules. Now that the US has fully accepted the worst of the term limits now in place from the Berne Convention (the BC only mandates life+50), it's now attempting to mandate a life+70 term/95 years with a all of its North and Central American Free Trade Agreement partners.
This is all pretty much up in the air for now, and for a decade to come, so I doubt if the current proposed copyright terms will actually go into effect for very long, if at all. My own guess is that they will continue to extend, as per the recent SCOTUS case Eldred v Ashcroft, and so it won't make any difference, as there is no legal reason to presume the copyright on Steamboat Willie or Winnie the Pooh will ever be allowed to expire. However, if we get just one more year, we can do Gibran's The Prophet. Michael S. Hart Founder Project Gutenberg