copyright extension in Australia
Feb. 18th, 2004 11:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miriam_eYet again the moneyed interests are wanting to rip the rest of us off big-time.
With the trade agreements between Australia and USA the weak-kneed politicians are going to increase our copyright period from 50 years after death (already absurdly long) to 70 years after death to bring it into line with US copyright laws (which were recently extended to that insane period).
Who does this benefit?
The authors? Not likely -- they're already more than half a century dead.
Their families? Mostly no -- copyright is generally held by corporations these days -- you sell your soul for money up-front.
The poor? Definitely not -- their access to free works is dramatically curtailed.
The ultra rich and the giant corporations? Yep, you got it, though the benefit is so small it is hard to understand why they would bother. However if you take a longer term look at what is happening then it becomes more logical. If they successfully extend copyright further each couple of decades then we will forever play a game of catch-up. We will always be waiting for copyright to expire but it will never come. The corporations will own all of mankind's culture from the 1920s onward for ever and ever.
Project Gutenberg Australia http://gutenberg.net.au/ have a lot to lose from copyright extension. This wonderful non-profit organisation publishes out-of-copyright books for free on the internet. Together with the main Project Gutenberg in the US http://www.gutenberg.net they have made available more than 10,000 books for free download, no strings attached. The plan is to help bridge the gulf between the information-rich and the information poor in this new digital age.
There was a rambling, muddily written report (paid for by the Motion Picture Association -- what a surprise) presented to our spineless politicians that you can read at http://www.allenconsult.com.au/resources/MPA_Draft_final.pdf
It is a work of appalling lack of logic. It says on the one hand that there is little financial benefit from the out-of-copyright works, yet somehow concludes that financial benefits will flow to the community by tying them up with copyright. It talks of retroactive copyright extension and prospective extension as if they were the same thing, which they are not. One suddenly copyrights works that were already in the public domain; the other effectively releases no more works into the public domain for another 20 years.
Renowned US copyright lawyer Lawrence Lessig discusses it here: http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/001522.shtml
There was a report published in the US by 17 economists including 5 Nobel prize winners which argues against copyright extension from 50 to 70 years. Somehow it has been overlooked in favor of the highly partisan MPA report.
Please tell all your friends about this and tell your local dopey politicians what you think.
With the trade agreements between Australia and USA the weak-kneed politicians are going to increase our copyright period from 50 years after death (already absurdly long) to 70 years after death to bring it into line with US copyright laws (which were recently extended to that insane period).
Who does this benefit?
The authors? Not likely -- they're already more than half a century dead.
Their families? Mostly no -- copyright is generally held by corporations these days -- you sell your soul for money up-front.
The poor? Definitely not -- their access to free works is dramatically curtailed.
The ultra rich and the giant corporations? Yep, you got it, though the benefit is so small it is hard to understand why they would bother. However if you take a longer term look at what is happening then it becomes more logical. If they successfully extend copyright further each couple of decades then we will forever play a game of catch-up. We will always be waiting for copyright to expire but it will never come. The corporations will own all of mankind's culture from the 1920s onward for ever and ever.
Project Gutenberg Australia http://gutenberg.net.au/ have a lot to lose from copyright extension. This wonderful non-profit organisation publishes out-of-copyright books for free on the internet. Together with the main Project Gutenberg in the US http://www.gutenberg.net they have made available more than 10,000 books for free download, no strings attached. The plan is to help bridge the gulf between the information-rich and the information poor in this new digital age.
There was a rambling, muddily written report (paid for by the Motion Picture Association -- what a surprise) presented to our spineless politicians that you can read at http://www.allenconsult.com.au/resources/MPA_Draft_final.pdf
It is a work of appalling lack of logic. It says on the one hand that there is little financial benefit from the out-of-copyright works, yet somehow concludes that financial benefits will flow to the community by tying them up with copyright. It talks of retroactive copyright extension and prospective extension as if they were the same thing, which they are not. One suddenly copyrights works that were already in the public domain; the other effectively releases no more works into the public domain for another 20 years.
Renowned US copyright lawyer Lawrence Lessig discusses it here: http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/001522.shtml
There was a report published in the US by 17 economists including 5 Nobel prize winners which argues against copyright extension from 50 to 70 years. Somehow it has been overlooked in favor of the highly partisan MPA report.
Please tell all your friends about this and tell your local dopey politicians what you think.
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copy right
Date: 2004-02-18 03:57 pm (UTC)gee should we all take our shoes off and get pregnant?
huggs
Jenna
Q & A
Date: 2004-02-19 07:22 pm (UTC)Re: Q & A
Date: 2004-02-19 07:52 pm (UTC)or wanna chat via email? miriam(at)werple.net.au
replace the (at) with @
I write it like that to stop spam address harvesting robots