Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
If I'm a rights holder, my concern isn't the law, it's revenue. Copyright law is relevant insofar as it allows me to defend my rights and (hopefully) generate revenue. So my actions will be pragmatic, based on what I feel I stand to gain or avoid losing. PG US has a lot of Wodehouse stuff up because it's now PD in the US. I haven't heard of the Wodehouse estate trying to make PG impose download restrictions on places where it isn't PD. What would the benefit be?
PG Australia has two pages of "Plus Fifty" - works that are in the PD in Australia.
They make no attempt to restrict downloads. They simply make it clear that they are PD in Australia.
Anyone unhappy with PG Australia's hosting of various works would have to hire an Australian lawyer and file suit in Australia. That would cost. What would their incentive be to do it? Little or none.
The last time I recall that issue arising at PG Australia, they were hosting some Doc Savage titles. Conde Nast claimed rights, purchased from Lester Dent's widow. They had nibbles from Sony about possible licensing of Doc Savage and The Shadow for film production, with 8 figure license fees. They were aggressively going after sites that had e-versions available (like Blackmask) to assert their rights and preserve the potential revenue stream.
Someone over here dropped PG AU a note about possible issues, and PG AU removed the titles so they wouldn't hear from lawyers representing CN. CN would probably think it had sufficient motivation to file suit in Oz, so this was simple caution on PG Oz's part.
In a different area, a local contact was complaining a few years about the fact that every comic book published has high quality scans available for download the day after it hit the stands, and that he could help the publishers track down the sources and stop it, and who should he speak to at the comics publishers? The blunt answer from folks in the industry was "No one, because they don't care. The real money for them isn't sales of paper comic books - it's licensing the characters for film and TV. Scans of paper comics don't threaten their rights or deprive them of enough revenue to make trying to stop it worth the trouble and expense."
Ultimately, I think this is an issue if someone thinks there is sufficient money involved to make it an issue. For the vast majority of PD here but not there titles, that will not be the case.
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Dennis
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If I may respectfully correct, the P.D. in Australia Doc Savages are still there. Just popped over and checked....
The issue is still very much unsettled. I wish some group like EFF would be willing to litigate it in, say Canada. There is no case law anywhere that I know of concerning extra-territorial rights for copyright....