Posted by Doug
Tue, 03 Jun 2003 18:29:00 GMT
I don’t want to see the public domain disappear. It’s the source of material that we use to cultivate new things from. As it now stands a few (and fewer) companies will end up owning the copyrights forever on our entire culture. Let’s do what we can to prevent this. Eventually things should return to the public. I agree with Lawrance Lessig that $1 is not too much to pay to keep your copyright forever. His proposal is to automatically grant a 50-year copyright term on all new works. At the end of the 50 years you pay $1 to renew it “for however long Congress wants to allow it”. The purpose of this is to return works to the public domain whose authors have abandoned them. It forces authors to consciously acknowlege they have the copyright and want it to continue. That doesn’t seem like too much to ask. Sign the Petition if you agree. Lobbyists for big companies are fighting even this small compromise. Make your voice heard. Tell Congress they don’t speak for you.
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Posted by Doug
Sun, 18 May 2003 02:54:00 GMT
Larry Lessig is a law professor at Stanford. He argued the Eldred vs Ashcroft case to get the Sony Bono Copyright Extension Act declared unconstitutional. His argument was simple. The Constitution declares that Congress shall set a “limted” term for copyrights. Congress has repeatedly extended that term. Their actions have told a tale of never allowing copyrights to expire. He overwhelmingly lost his case. However, his new idea for compromise in copyright is to set an automatic 50 year term on all new copyrights. After that, the copyright must pay $1 to extend the copyright “as long as Congress lets them.” His statistics show that about 98% of copyrights would be allowed to expire. He thought he had a sponsor to propose the bill. It turns out lobyists are fighting even this simple $1 fee. He’s asking for help to find a sponsor for the bill. If having a public domain is important to you, write your Representative and your Senator.
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Posted by Doug
Mon, 12 May 2003 16:41:00 GMT
I guess this is how they make their money. They have to perpetuate “schemes” like this to keep revenues up. Lawrence Lessig is writing about some advice Bruce Lehman - the Clinton Administration’s IntelectualProperty? czar - gave to a consotium in Cairo, Egypt when they asked about putting images of Egyption artifacts on the web. He advised them against spreading such knowledge freely. He’s reported to have said the images “should be licensed.”
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