Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike L
I agree that they rights owners will only get the fee paid for the actual use, but that wasn't what I was asking. I was asking who pays the fee - the person using the work, or (in effect) the taxpayer?
I also agree that only a very small number of rights owners are going to come forward. And, even then, I suspect the amount they get paid will be fairly trivial. But I don't see how that leads to your conclusion that there "is not going to be a net cost to the taxpayer".
But I don't want to make a big issue of this point. I only raised it out of curiosity.
Mike
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There is a precedent for a fairly similar situation, which was when the UK extended copyright term from "Life+50" to "Life+70" years, and so 20 years'-worth of work that had been in the public domain once again became protected by copyright. What happened then is that everyone who was making use of material that re-entered copyright was permitted to carry on using it, but had to pay a (small) fee to the copyright holder.