How TPP will clobber Canada's municipal archives and galleries of historical city photos

[doctorow]

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2015/11/06/how-tpp-will-clobber-canadas.html

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[jmv]

So the benefits of retroactive changes to copyright terms will first go to those who died between 1945-1965? If that era means anything to you historically, you may just have to say farewell to postwar history.

[Church]

I keep reading TPP as “The Pirate Party.”

[HMSGoose]

@doctorow

The value of what’s in the public domain cannot be underestimated

Oooohhh, sorrryy, I actually read somewhere recently that The Market determines all value, and that any value determinations made outside of The Market are, by their nature, corrupted by impure human agendas. Aaaaaaand The Market says $0. Again, sooorrrryyyyy

[GeekMan]

OMG Wow, thank you for re-posting this, Cory. I’m stoked that it’ll reach a larger audience.

If there’s one big reason I am such a rabid digital-rights advocate and copyfighter, it’s the years of reading publications like boingboing. So, thanks again.

[Michael1]

I’m not a legal expert, but I did encounter this paragraph in chapter 18 of the TPP: “Unless provided in Article 18.64 (Application of Article 18 of the Berne Convention and Article 14.6 of the TRIPS Agreement), a Party shall not be required to restore protection to subject matter that on the date of entry into force of this Agreement for that Party has fallen into the public domain in its territory.” (Article 18.10, paragraph 2)

My question is, do any of the “unless provided” articles in Berne or TRIPS require a retroactive copyright extension in Canadian law? If not, it seems that the TPP allows what is already in the public domain to stay there. That would at least save archivists from undertaking the thankless task of scrubbing their online collections of retroactively re-copyrighted materials.

Nevertheless, a copyright extension that prevents any new material from entering the public domain for 20 years cannot be welcome news to any librarian or archivist !

[howaboutthis]

Actually, companies like Disney have found the public domain to be a goldmine - one that they return to over and over. They just don’t want to leave any of “their” works there.