Quote:
Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
The Google Books settlement also only applies to the US, so I think it's OK to discuss US laws.
Yes, that doesn't mean you can't sue at all (though it is highly advantageous to register).
Multiple registrations still mean increased costs, increased complexity, and a bigger burden on a US Copyright Office that already has a tremendous backlog.
/snip/
Every time I turn around, someone is modifying what copyright and/or the public domain is about. I swear, I'm getting whiplash. 
So remind me, what is the horrific fear-mongering -- oh, pardon me -- the critical data for which the public is crying? The 10% of books that Google scanned, that were sitting in libraries, no one bothered to republish? Yet again, keep in mind that per Google's own estimates, 90% of the books they scanned are NOT orphaned -- they're just out of print.
And realistically, how many works will we save from being orphaned this way? At least some of the works will get re-registered at some point, only to later come under dispute and/or the rights holder goes out of business. I.e. unless you make registration an onerous burden, you're not going to rescue a lot of work.
Required registration is a bad idea, that only gets worse when the government agencies in question are already overburdened and/or underfunded. |
The public is crying about the out-of-print books, too. The ones that the copyright holder obviously doesn't care about selling anymore, but are protected by excessive copyright terms.
And if we were to charge $2000 (or whatever) for registration of a renewal, I think it would fund itself quite nicely. In fact, I'll volunteer to do it myself.
