Quote:
Originally Posted by James_Wilde
As to the objection that we can't shorten a period (life+50) after the convention is signed, if we can lengthen it as was done recently for music, then I think we can shorten it.
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It was lengthened in countries where a minority of the world's people live. That minority is, AFAIK, free to go back to the most common standard, Life + 50.
In 1994,
a different trade agreement was agreed to by 123 nations. So one can't rule out the equivalent of a new Berne Convention that all populous nations buy into.
Consider, however, that any such agreement would be a compromise. Suppose the compromise was stricter enforcement of a shorter copyright period. This might not be really popular on the internet. I'm thinking that the more pro-business parts of the compromise would get enormous negative publicity, scuttling the whole. Free speech issues might also get into the mix in an unattractive way. So while I'm not wholly against a new Berne Convention, I think the alternative of rolling back to Life + 50, one nation at a time, is closer to being a realistic reform. And I'm against rich countries unilaterally reducing the copyright term of developing nation authors, something the more radical plans in this thread sound like to me.