|
Interestingly, Canada's copyright law -- last revised in 1997 -- will AGAIN not be revised because we've entered an election and all legislation before Parliament or in committee "dies". Three serious attempts to bring forward new legislation have expired this way. It's good for books, as far as I am concerned: 50 years after an author's death is already far more protection than is needed.
Personally, I'd like to see a 20 year window on copyright from the date of creation/publication and automatic transfer to public domain UNLESS the owner of the creation renews with a national registry ... for 20 year terms and a maximum of two renewals. That would protect an individual creative act for up to sixty years -- surely enough time for a creator to derive fair value for. And works that were NOT deemed commercially worth protecting would gracefully become part of the public domain.
|