Thread: Court rejects Google Books settlement
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Old 03-25-2011, 09:39 AM   #42
Kali Yuga
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck View Post
I think requiring registration initially is silly. I think that continued commercial exploitation should require registration...
Why? Because there is a small slice of work that you want to go into public domain ahead of schedule?

Works, I might add, that would have totally slipped into obscurity if ebooks had developed, say, 50 or 75 years later?


Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
....there should be an acknowledgment that these works are built out of a common, shared heritage (etc etc).
There is nothing about the formal structure of copyright and public domain that requires an artist acknowledge a "shared heritage."

Let's say a Chinese artist, who is extensively aware of Chinese landscape painting and ignorant of Western art, moves to Los Angeles and produces work. Those paintings are still protected by copyright, and go into the public domain when copyright expires.

Heck, the artist doesn't even need to leave China; thanks to international treaties, his copyrights are automatically respected in most nations. Without needing to fill out a bunch of paperwork.

Or, let's say I'm a political radical raised in the US, and I despise Western society. My art in turn reflects my contempt for whatever cultural elements I share with other Americans. My work is still protected by copyright and goes into the PD when copyright expires.


Further, copyright covers specific expressions rather than ideas. Artists are clearly capable of influencing one another, even when their work is still protected by copyright.

The public domain is, rather specifically, the removal of copyright protection. That's it. Nothing about it requires or enforces "acknowledging a shared heritage."


Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
If you can't make your fortune in 50 years, another 50 won't help. If you can, you can make another fortune with another creative work; you don't need to lean on that one your whole life.
So yesterday it was 20 years, now it's 50? I guess that's progress.

But the reality is, it's just a mechanism to get work into PD earlier than usual. Again, not worth the problems it will inflict on content creators, or the added bureaucracy.
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