Quote:
Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel
well, i must be denser than the average pinwheel  because i sincerely still don't see where any ambiguity comes into play here. it seems quite straightforward to me.
- AA Milne died 50+ years ago.
- his works are therefore in the PD in Canada, under their current legislation.
- therefore any website based in canada could legally host on its servers the text of those works.
- what other people do with those texts (ie downloading them from texas, where they are still copyright) is not under the control of the website nor is it their responsibility, as long as they explicitly state a legal disclaimer about the pd state of the work and respect copyright by stating that visitors must verify the copyright laws in their country of residence before downloading.
the behavior you described (rich copyright holders with unlimited litigation ressources threatening a lawsuit in another country to prevent PD work from being put online under the pretext that they might be accessed by people in countries where the content is not PD) seems at best unmitigatedly immoral and unethical, at worst illegal (and if it's not illegal it bloody well should be). it is absolutely shocking the attitude of rich copyright holders towards their cashcow-- sorry, "intellectual property", and their blatant disregard for the actual meaning and intent of copyright and its legal expiration. |
Your Majesty, I quite agree. But I thought that you knew that part of the graduation ceremony for lawyers is the surgical removal of their morals and ethics (those that have any left, that is)....
The law is used in modern society as a club, and the only protection is to have another club-wielder to fight back for you, if you have the money. Otherwise, you'd be look over your shoulder (figuratively) and be ready to run at the drop of a hat. Makes me think of the Dick Cheney hunting accident. the liberals were horrified that they were using guns. The conservatives were horrified that the lawyer who was shot survived....