I doubt it'll take this long... [LWN.net]

I doubt it'll take this long...

Posted Apr 27, 2010 20:32 UTC (Tue) by dmaxwell (guest, #14010)
In reply to: I doubt it'll take this long... by bronson
Parent article: Why Making Money from Free Software Matters (The H)

There is a broad spectrum between "slavishly adopt nasty secret anti-consumer treaties strong armed by the US behind closed doors" and "invalidate US copyrights just because". Suppose a few large markets among other things decided they don't need to please the US on this as much as they have in past and try some true copyright reform. Say they have a system where copyright only lasts 25 years and can be renewed once if it is still profitable for the copyright holder. Under that system, those two old ladies wouldn't be able to terrorize people for singing "Happy Birthday" around a campfire. There are many such possibilities where many US copyrights would (eventually) no longer be valid in those jurisdictions. And if the US continues as it has been, this could start happening sooner than you think.

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I doubt it'll take this long...

Posted Apr 27, 2010 21:04 UTC (Tue) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]

Going after or blaming the 'US' for all of this is a mistake.

The people who are after passing things like the ACTA are absolutely a global community and they use the USA government as a vehicle because it's currently the most influential and is the most friendly for them for various reasons, not to mention that many of them are in the USA (of course).

But it can just as easily be the EU folks being their vehicle AND it certainly would NEVER get done without the full cooperation of the governments in Europe.