On Mon, 31 Oct 2005, Dave Fawthrop wrote:
On , in you wrote:
| On 10/30/05, Dave Doty <davedoty@hotmail.com> wrote: | > | > | > | > US law is not a world standard from which other countries choose to | > deviate. | | | 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 was once a pioneer in copyright law, using a simple and effective version of the original 1709-10 Statute of Anne when the US was founded, and resisting most of the changes to that 14 + 14 year standard when the Berne convention made it impossible to tell when a copyright would expire until the author had expired. However, due to various pressures from what we now know as the WIPO cartel of publishing interests, the US [and many other nations] have changed their copyright laws to give more and more benefits to the publishers, and less and less to the public, under the pressures of economic warfare. Thus the original US copyright law *WAS* "the standard" mentioned above only from the founding of the US to ~1831, when 14 + 14 was repleaced by 28 + 14, a standard which I don't recall was ever adopted elsewhere. This "standard" was again replaced in 1909 with 28 + 28, and again in 1976 with 75 years [renewal not needed] and in 1998 with 95 years. None of these were "standard" anywhere but in the US, AFIK. Thus, we can't say the US set any copyright standard, though it did agree with one when it was founded. Under the latest US Supreme Court decision, you can be sure the US copyright will continue to be extended. mh