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. -- Dave Fawthrop <dave hyphenologist co uk> "Intelligent Design?" my knees say *not*. "Intelligent Design?" my back says *not*. More like "Incompetent design"
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.
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
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
participants (3)
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Bruce Albrecht -
Dave Fawthrop -
Michael Hart