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02-25-2010, 02:43 PM | #16 |
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Excellent letter, Ralph Sir Edward!
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02-25-2010, 03:05 PM | #17 |
Montreal wins Grey Cup!
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Inspired by Ralph Sir Edward, I have sent my own letter which adds little to his and is not as good as his. But I felt that Ms. Espinel should hear the message from more than one person.
Dear Ms. Espinel, The US Constitution calls for copyright to be for a limited time only. With the expiration of a copyright term, the work of art belongs to the general public, known as the public domain. I am in favor of an author making as much money as he can from his work. Not only is compensation just, but the reward of compensation will encourage the author to create more art, which is in the public interest. However, when the author dies, there will be no further creation by him. For that reason, I believe that the term of a copyright should expire with the death of the author. You have requested publishers to provide you with evidence supporting their claim that they lose revenue from the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material over the internet. I would like to point out that relatively recent changes in US copyright law have greatly extended the length of time the publishers may claim ownership. These extensions have come at the expense of the general public. I therefore suggest that the publishers also be required to distinguish in their estimates of lost profits the figures regarding the sale of books of dead authors. The publishing industry has to my knowledge always taken the position that violation of copyright is an immoral act. (For example, today the word used is "piracy".) In my view the publishers have no moral grounds to justify the existence of copyright beyond the death of the author. Sincerely, (GA Russell My Town, NC) |
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02-25-2010, 03:16 PM | #18 | |
Wizard
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If it expires immediately at death: 1. It discourages creating work late in life since they and their family will see little to nothing out of it if they die right as it comes out etc. 2. It discourages the family for publishing works posthumously if the copyright died with the creator as they'll see nothing out of it. So I do think the copyright does need to go beyond death--but maybe it can apply to works that have been out for 10 years or less (late life works) and only last for 15-25 years past death rather than 50 or 75 as a compromise. That way you don't have books written when they were 20 still under copy right 100+ years later as they lived to 100 and the copyright carries on etc. Last edited by dmaul1114; 02-25-2010 at 03:51 PM. |
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02-25-2010, 03:37 PM | #19 |
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Well said Bremen Cole!
All too often Government has shown that they are much more interested in what big business can do for them rather than protecting the average person. Excellent letter SirEdward. Bravo sir |
02-25-2010, 03:54 PM | #20 |
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dmaul, it is my understanding that very few books are sold after they have been out more than three years.
(I read not long ago that in regard to music, 80% of a compact disc's sales occur within eight weeks of its release.) Instead of a "life plus fifty" rule, I would support a "five plus life" rule. This would give the publisher and the heirs five years to make their money, which is almost always all they ever get anyway, in the event of either an author's death shortly after publication or a posthumous work. If you will agree to my concept, I won't quibble with you whether the minimum term should be five or ten years. But for nearly all books, it will be the life of the author. |
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02-25-2010, 04:01 PM | #21 |
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Yep, I do agree with the concept. I'm not picky on years can be 5-15 years etc. Maybe tie it to sales? So you don't have some super famous book that will sell a lot for years to come etc. get cut off from the family 5 years after they die if it's still selling big numbers?
As sales are front heavy, but some thing sell pretty much continuously--i.e. Beatles CDs etc. Which makes it harder to just base the law on the typical band that sales a bunch for a year or two then goes away until the next album etc. |
02-25-2010, 04:05 PM | #22 | |
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These are quibbling on details. The important part is to remind that "Copyright Czar" that extending the copyright lengths is as much "stealing" as copyright infringement, and that the needs of the public should be taken in account every bit as much as the lobbyists of the copyright holders. If you want to claim costs, we, the public, request an economic accounting of just how much we have been robbed of by the law changes. Cost BOTH sides of the issue... I recommend that other people write in. Believe it or not, it's Your government (assuming you're a US citizen. No offense to the non-US readers here.). Just don't get angry or real specific (You can use a specific example or two to estimate by, like the fact that under the law at the time that Gone With The Wind and The Wizard Of Oz were released, they would have gone PD in 1996. Therefore the entire DVD/BluRay revenue would be a sample of monies taken out of the public's pocket.) Merely point out that the public loses every time the copyright has been (or will be) extended. You don't have to be as good a writer as I am, but I suspect that quantity counts.... |
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02-25-2010, 04:38 PM | #23 | |
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Alright, here's my letter to Ms. Espinel. I focused a bit more on enforcement as the link seemed to imply that's what they were interested in--and I care just as much about protecting content creators as I do the rights of users/the public.
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02-25-2010, 04:45 PM | #24 |
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The 'Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator' doesn't want to hear from us (consumers), just publishers who would send her a bunch of disgracefully inflated numbers which come from calculations with a lot of assumptions involved.
They would make calculations like 'it was downloaded via the pirate bay 100'000 times so that is $900'000 million in lost income'. When in reality a lot of people download in a haphazard fashion, collecting things simply because they are free and with some vague notion that they might read it at some date 'in the future'. Those people would have never paid for the book in question and many would have no interest in it if there was a price tag attached. They only collect the item because they like the idea of having that book in their virtual (unread) library. Gathering the numbers for those kinds of users is difficult because the % probably varies between books. When there is genuine piracy of e-books by people who actually read the book, I am willing to bet many (if not most) of those people do so to avoid DRM in the paid product or because it is simply ot available in the format they desire. Content holders love gathering huge inflated numbers from the Internet and showing those numbers to the government, so they can push for harsher penalties. This will be more of that. |
02-25-2010, 05:18 PM | #25 | |
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Perhaps so, Fugalized. But remember,"all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing". Canada thought that it the public didn't care about copyright issues when they had their "town hall" meetings earlier this year. Boy were they suprised! This may be useless, but..... (Movie - Rio Lobo Jack Elam shoots a shotgun out the window in a long range gunfight. (John Wayne) - "Splatterguns useless!" (Jack Elam) - Don't mind me shootin' it. It makes me feel better...) Poppin' out a letter to a bureaucrat makes me feel better.... Last edited by Greg Anos; 02-25-2010 at 05:22 PM. |
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02-25-2010, 05:18 PM | #26 |
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Excellent letter, dmaul114
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02-25-2010, 11:54 PM | #27 |
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You're still ahead of the game. Why should it be assumed, in a proper study, that harm exists at all? (Again, obscurity is the major issue for the mid/low list...)
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02-26-2010, 12:18 AM | #28 | |
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02-26-2010, 12:31 AM | #29 |
Wizard
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If things went straight to the public domain upon death, then the family would have no control of the series.
Anyone could have started writing new books in the series. Now the same books would probably come out in this case as it's a famous serious and the publisher knows that it would sell best if they publish it based on Jordan's notes and with his name on it. So it probably wouldn't have mattered in this case much. But it would for less prominent situations not involving a huge selling series/author etc. |
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