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50 years is too long50 years is too longPosted May 25, 2005 0:25 UTC (Wed) by mcelrath (guest, #8094)Parent article: Public Domain Enhancement Act reintroduced
50 years is way too long, especially for software. Already there are video games for which the hardware to run them has all expired, and the media on which they were distributed has rotted. In order to preserve such things, many people are currently violating copyrights on these things in order to transfer them to newer media, run them under emulators, etc. The profit forecast for all media is an exponential curve, and the timescale on which profits fall to negligible values is only a year or two. The original copyright term of 14 years is more reasonable. Furthermore, it is the things for which people are willing to pay $1 that we most want to enter the public domain. These works become part of our public consciousness, and they need to enter the public domain in our lifetime so that derivative works can be made. The works for which no one is willing to pay $1 are also the ones that no one knows about, and the ones for which few efforts would be made to re-use. -- Bob
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50 years is too long Posted May 25, 2005 6:15 UTC (Wed) by JoeBuck (subscriber, #2330) [Link] 50 years is the minimum term allowable by international treaty. No country can choose a shorter term without violating the treaty.
50 years is too long Posted May 25, 2005 23:34 UTC (Wed) by XERC (guest, #14626) [Link] And most of the Intellectual Propertytreaties, as we know, are initiated one way or another by some United States intereats. As the US government is more pro-business then pro-citizen, then the term, US government, means practically, US business. Take Iraq, take software patents. Naturally, if SW-patents get enforced in EU, then it's the europeans fault that they were not smart enough and/or couldn't put up respectful representatives. We can then blame only ourselves. I don't know exactly about the WIPO, TRIPS, etc. but I believe that one might end up in the US one way or another.
50 years is too long Posted May 26, 2005 4:18 UTC (Thu) by dvdeug (subscriber, #10998) [Link] The US didn't sign the Berne Convention, first created in the early part of the 20th century, until 1978. The rules of this game weren't set by the US.
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