The laws in Canada and the EU are different ā thousands of works are entering their public domains on January 1.
Donāt worry, lobbyists are working tirelessly to make those evil countries that hate authors extend copyright so zombie C.S. Lewis will have incentive to write.
I donāt understand, in the EU copyright extension is also 70 years after the authorĀ“s death, Iām missing something?
As an EU citizen I demand to know what can I use to brag about the EU being superior to the USA!
Cultureā¦ historyā¦ coffeeā¦
Of course the US got āLife +ā copyright terms from the EU. The works weāre talking about here were copyrighted for fixed (+ one possible extension) terms in the US. Combined with the requirement for copyright notice and registration, it meant that one could often determine that determine whether a work was in the public domain by examining the work itself. And if it was still protected, it was reasonably possible to identify the righstholder. sigh
How funny that Atlas Shrugged, the bible of the current crop of sophomoric libertarian anti-government activists, would be free for anyone to use if not for those darn government regulations!
Last Christmas, I tried to find out who the rights holder was and ask permission to show āA Charlie Brown Christmasā for part of our holiday celebration at the library. I found that no one seems to know who can grant permission, not the estate of Charles M. Schultz, not Swank (who does public performance rights for most videos), and not Warner Brothers, who bought and then seemingly resold the rights. I chased my tail around for nearly a month before giving up and electing not to show it. Garanz if I had, the putative rights holder would have come out of the woodwork to sue me. BTW, that first aired in 1965, and might be eligible to enter the public domain in 8 years.
Aaaaaand this is why I gladly pirate anything, anytime.
Rights holders expect us to play fair, but then rally together to fuck us over when itās time for them to play fair.
Another reason for my fellow wingnuts to oppose regulations ā¦ and this time itās personal.
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