Copyright Law

[incka]

In the UK it is 70 years after the author of the works death. It used to be 50 years until an EU directive changed it.

I personally would like the following, whichever is first:

*15 years after authors death.
*50 years after works creation

[MarkB]

I think it's fine the way it is.

[incka]

Explain why people OTHER THAN THE AUTHOR should have a monopoly over the authors work after the author can no longer benifit from it?

[MarkB]

Why are you complaining? Because YOU want to profit from their work without paying a cent!

The thing is, the authors work is their property, and if they choose to pass that property onto another body (be it a family member, group, or otherwise) as part of their estate, on their death, then that is THEIR business.

[incka]

The UKGov link in your sig is missing a dot and you haven't approved any of the comments yet.

[MarkB]

Thanks :) and thanks for taking part in the blog.

[James]

Wooh! GO MARK!

I'd say that it's fine if companys still profit from it; it means they'll still push it in advertising and stuff, so the work is spread out more.

I also think that it'd be nice if people could inherit copyrights. Or can they already?

[Cutter]

I'd like to see copyright cut down to about 15 or 20 years; in some cases less. The copyright owner's death is kind of null and void since rights are bought and sold all the time. I think Michael Jackson owned the Beatle's rights. Of course you don't want someone getting killed over copyright either.

Computer games are the best example. There is very little market for PC games that are 10 years old. I know of a few "abandonware" sites that have old games for download. The copyright makes distribution of these games very difficult, legally. PC game companies come and go, are bought, sold, merged, and no one knows who owns the copyright. The same case is being made for old movies as well; of course this is more like the 50 year mark.

Patents are what, 15 years? Much more reasonable I believe. Some people want to abolish patent and copyright altogether. I'd just prefer they but cut short quite a bit.

[Cutter]

As for an eternal copyright, when copyright was originally established in the United States it was recognized as a temporary monopoly. Why should someone else profit from my work? Just the same, why should I have to pay royalties to play someone else's song whether I'm making a profit or not?

Certainly a deep issue. I just believe limiting copyright encourages creators to keep producing quality work. Just look at famous artists. The original works go for million upon millions of dollars yet the copyright is public domain.

[Xander]

I think copyright law dates should be something like 25-50 years after creation. Its defintely good to encourage new quality work, like patents are for only fairly short period of time.

[MarkB]

I believe if someone has the talent, and drive, to create something of worth from thin air (such as a book, painting, piece of music), then they should be able to enjoy the fruits of those endeavours for as long as they can. If they want to release it to the public domain, that's up to them, but if I were to write a book now that amazed the world, why should I lose control of it in 25 years?

[Chris]

I read an interesting proposal once where they would require copyright to be renewed every x number of years. The cost would be $1, but you'd only pay it if you wanted to bother with it. So many old video games would likely be out of copyright.

However, don't forget that copyright also covers derivative works. Just because no one plays the original Donkey Kong anymore doesn't mean that the characters of Donkey Kong or Mario aren't in other newer games.

Personally I just hope they don't keep extending it. Next time Mickey Mouse is about to enter the public domain I see Disney again trying to lobby for an extension of copyright, and any more increases and it'll be insane (I think its already 120 years for something owned by a corporation).

[incka]

I think a lot of copyright is ignored...

1) George Orwell - His works are on thousands of university sites and even on some government sites.
2) Pong, Space Invaders, Tetris - Exact replacas all over the place.

[James]

Indeed, Incka.

I'd be suprised if video games (such as Test Drive which has it in its "loading" menu) which are large and in-the-open didn't obey these laws though. And large corperations don't go after http://angelfire.com/co/jims~super~duper~pokemon~site/homepage.htm (fake URL) because it has a picture of a picachu (sp?) on it.