[d@DCC] The dead poets society: The copyright term and the public domain by Matthew Rimmer

From: Russell McOrmond <russell _-at-_ flora.ca>
To: General Copyright Discussions <discuss (at) digital-copyright.ca>
Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2003 13:38:54 -0400 (EDT)

Copies to the Canadian Heritage committee, and the
http://www.digital-copyright.ca forum.



  I hope you will find the following paper of interest.  The timing of the
release of this paper is appropriate given the discussion of the copyright
extension parts of Bill C-36.

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http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue8_6/rimmer/index.html

     Abstract

     The dead poets society: The copyright term and the public domain by
     Matthew Rimmer
 
     In a victory for corporate control of cultural heritage, the Supreme
     Court of the United States has rejected a constitutional challenge to
     the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act 1998 (U.S.) by a majority
     of seven to two. This paper evaluates the litigation in terms of
     policy debate in a number of discourses -- history, intellectual
     property law, constitutional law and freedom of speech, cultural
     heritage, economics and competition policy, and international trade.

     It argues that the extension of the copyright term will inhibit the
     dissemination of cultural works through the use of new technologies
     -- such as Eric Eldred's Eldritch Press and Project Gutenberg. It
     concludes that there is a need to resist the attempts of copyright
     owners to establish the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act 1998
     (U.S.) as an international model for other jurisdictions -- such as
     Australia.


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  Canadians must learn from the mistakes of the USA which include
excessive extension of the term of copyright.  Even more critical is the
erosion of copyright itself through the elevation of the
software-implemented rules of technology/media companies above that of
copyright law via Legal protection for TPM.

  Real creators (living natural persons) know that they depend on a
healthy public domain for the creation of their works, and a
democratically controlled (rather than corporate media-monopoly
controlled) communications environment to communicate them.  Some of the
recent changes to copyright are clearly harmful to creators' rights and
citizens' rights, and only helpful to the already too-power non-creator
'intermediaries'.

---
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/> 
 Governance software that controls ICT, automates government policy, or
 electronically counts votes, shouldn't be bought any more than 
 politicians should be bought.  -- http://www.flora.ca/russell/

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