On Mon, 6 Jun 2005, Juhana Sadeharju wrote:
I suggest the copyright period would be changed so that each book has fixed 50 years copyright protection. Would this suggestion be seriously considered in WIPO? Or does the Disn... money talk.
I believe you would need to go back in copyright history a little bit. I believe the basis of terms etc. under WIPO is based on the Berne convention. This convention (first formulated in 1886) is the most wide-spread international copyright agreement. It sets out a basic minimum copyright term of life+50. The US avoided signing onto this treaty until near the end of the twentieth century. Unfortunately, they along a few other countries, have enacted laws which grant a copyright longer than the minimum. I would suggest that at this point in time, attempts to change the minimum term enacted in the Berne convention would be useless. If possible, it might be good to encourage National laws to stay with that minimum--to present countries which do so as progressive. (Some people will argue the opposite--that countries with a life+50 term are backwards, behind the times, and should "catch up" with the U.S., the U.K., et al.) Andrew