Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
Nope. The root of the problem is excessively long copyright.
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Long terms certainly add to the problem, but I don't think they represent the core issue. Reducing copyright terms would probably be of little use in Elfwreck's example of a collection of "Best Poems From 70's Magazines", since I doubt that it's realistic to expect copyright terms to get reduced down to 1786 levels.
Let's say you chance upon a stack of small-run magazines printed on low-grade newsprint 30 years ago which are busy dissolving in their own acid. You know that these will soon be illegible, you know that the companies that published them have long since vanished, you know that only a tiny number were printed and these copies may be the last remaining ones.
Should our culture lose the contents forever? Remember that any copying of the magazines is a violation of copyright. You could put in wider exemptions for the purpose of archiving, and then term limits would determine when a compilation could be published. This would currently mean the archive gathers dust for another 120+ years before seeing the light of day. Or you could allow immediate publication on a non-profit basis for a certain length of time, following which, if no claimants come forward, the works pass into the public domain and may be exploited in any way one chooses.