3 ms·

This is one of those things that a bit of technology could so easily resolve. The government sets up a website where you can upload the work you want to copyri

This is one of those things that a bit of technology could so easily resolve. The government sets up a website where you can upload the work you want to copyright and register yourself as the owner. If it's something like software, you must upload the code. It wouldn't be visible to anyone, but would be there in case the copyright expires. If someone wants to use your work, they can contact you though the website. If you don't reply (edit: this should say acknowledge) in some reasonable amount of time (say three months), then the copyright is considered abandoned and the work enters the public domain. For existing works, give people say two years to upload and register. Anything not registered (or at least marked as "in dispute") becomes public domain. This at least solves the abandoned works problem, as well as the archiving problem. After 100ish years, we'd have a copy of every work as it enters the public domain.

LegitShady 3y ago
>If you don't reply in some reasonable amount of time (say three months), then the copyright is considered abandoned and the work enters the public domain. I'm not sure why I'm legally required to respond to requests for the use of my copyrighted works. I can simply ignore them. Requiring that I respond to them will create an undue burden on me. I don't mind as long as I can bill you personally for forcing me to hire someone to respond to such requests, at a reasonable rate for a legal attorney with a specialty in copyright. He can even provide invoices, although the time required to produce the invoice will be included in the invoice.
- jedberg 3y ago
  You don't have to respond. You just have to acknowledge that you've received the request and that you still wish to hold the copyright.
  - benabbottnz 3y ago
    Then everyone will just use an auto-reply service.
    - jedberg 3y ago
      Which would be fine, because those services still cost money and/or require maintenance. There would still be a way to track down the owner of the copyright. You could even make it part of the law that the respondent must be the copyright holder or have had contact with the copyright holder within the last X days.
  - LegitShady 3y ago
    Why should I pay to respond because you want to use my copyrighted material? You're the one with the request, I don't have to respond to it. You want a guaranteed response, you pay me for that response. How about you pay me to respond to you instead? At copyright attorney rates for my region. You send my attorney a request and your billing information, and he'll reply to you on my behalf and send you the invoice for his time. Otherwise people will be able to cause huge financial impositions by essentially DDOSing people with copyright requests. You want a guaranteed response, you pay for that response in advance, otherwise kick rocks.
xeonmc 3y ago
So basically government-mandated NFTs?
- jedberg 3y ago
  I never said anything about blockchains. A blockchain would be a solution, but I'm talking about a simple website by the US government.
dnissley 3y ago
Uploading the work itself doesn't seem like it would work in a lot of cases. I'm picturing e.g. Google trying to upload their entire monorepo with hundreds of thousands of file changes per day -- to what end exactly?
- jedberg 3y ago
  Why would they need copyright on their actively changing monorepo? That's a service that is actively run. That's a different problem. I'm talking about works that are distributed, like books or movies or compiled software.
ivlad 3y ago
> The government sets up a website What government? World government? Yours? Mine? Who will pay for it? What will happen is an author is hit by a car and falls into coma? How will authorship be established? Worldwide federated authentication of authors? How will it work of authors in Iran? Technosolutuonists are funny sometimes. “Just add a little bit of blockchain”.
- jedberg 3y ago
  > What government? World government? Yours? Mine? Who will pay for it? The US Government, since we are talking about US Copyright. > How will authorship be established? Worldwide federated authentication of authors? How will it work of authors in Iran? US copyright doesn't cover worldwide works unless they register in the US. > Technosolutuonists are funny sometimes. “Just add a little bit of blockchain”. And I never said blockchain. I said a website where people upload and register their works. You know, like a digital version of how it works today where you mail a copy of your work to the copyright office. But with the added bonus of a contact feature. > What will happen is an author is hit by a car and falls into coma? Presumably there would be a dispute process available for these rare edge cases. This is in fact why it would not be a blockchain. So that the legal system still has final say.
  - ivlad 3y ago
    > US copyright doesn't cover worldwide works unless they register in the US. Are you sure it works this way now?
    - jedberg 3y ago
      I mean with everything copyright, it's complicated. If for example you create a work in the UK, it's automatically copyright in the UK. Because of international treaties, that copyright is honored in the US. But it's not a US copyright. It doesn't follow US copyright law for expiration for example. I'm not a copyright lawyer, I've just looked into it before. This is my layman's understanding after talking to a lawyer.

LegitShady 3y ago

>If you don't reply in some reasonable amount of time (say three months), then the copyright is considered abandoned and the work enters the public domain. I'm not sure why I'm legally required to respond to requests for the use of my copyrighted works. I can simply ignore them. Requiring that I respond to them will create an undue burden on me. I don't mind as long as I can bill you personally for forcing me to hire someone to respond to such requests, at a reasonable rate for a legal attorney with a specialty in copyright. He can even provide invoices, although the time required to produce the invoice will be included in the invoice.

jedberg 3y ago
You don't have to respond. You just have to acknowledge that you've received the request and that you still wish to hold the copyright.
- benabbottnz 3y ago
  Then everyone will just use an auto-reply service.
  - jedberg 3y ago
    Which would be fine, because those services still cost money and/or require maintenance. There would still be a way to track down the owner of the copyright. You could even make it part of the law that the respondent must be the copyright holder or have had contact with the copyright holder within the last X days.
- LegitShady 3y ago
  Why should I pay to respond because you want to use my copyrighted material? You're the one with the request, I don't have to respond to it. You want a guaranteed response, you pay me for that response. How about you pay me to respond to you instead? At copyright attorney rates for my region. You send my attorney a request and your billing information, and he'll reply to you on my behalf and send you the invoice for his time. Otherwise people will be able to cause huge financial impositions by essentially DDOSing people with copyright requests. You want a guaranteed response, you pay for that response in advance, otherwise kick rocks.

xeonmc 3y ago

So basically government-mandated NFTs?

jedberg 3y ago
I never said anything about blockchains. A blockchain would be a solution, but I'm talking about a simple website by the US government.

dnissley 3y ago

Uploading the work itself doesn't seem like it would work in a lot of cases. I'm picturing e.g. Google trying to upload their entire monorepo with hundreds of thousands of file changes per day -- to what end exactly?

jedberg 3y ago
Why would they need copyright on their actively changing monorepo? That's a service that is actively run. That's a different problem. I'm talking about works that are distributed, like books or movies or compiled software.

ivlad 3y ago

> The government sets up a website What government? World government? Yours? Mine? Who will pay for it? What will happen is an author is hit by a car and falls into coma? How will authorship be established? Worldwide federated authentication of authors? How will it work of authors in Iran? Technosolutuonists are funny sometimes. “Just add a little bit of blockchain”.

jedberg 3y ago
> What government? World government? Yours? Mine? Who will pay for it? The US Government, since we are talking about US Copyright. > How will authorship be established? Worldwide federated authentication of authors? How will it work of authors in Iran? US copyright doesn't cover worldwide works unless they register in the US. > Technosolutuonists are funny sometimes. “Just add a little bit of blockchain”. And I never said blockchain. I said a website where people upload and register their works. You know, like a digital version of how it works today where you mail a copy of your work to the copyright office. But with the added bonus of a contact feature. > What will happen is an author is hit by a car and falls into coma? Presumably there would be a dispute process available for these rare edge cases. This is in fact why it would not be a blockchain. So that the legal system still has final say.
- ivlad 3y ago
  > US copyright doesn't cover worldwide works unless they register in the US. Are you sure it works this way now?
  - jedberg 3y ago
    I mean with everything copyright, it's complicated. If for example you create a work in the UK, it's automatically copyright in the UK. Because of international treaties, that copyright is honored in the US. But it's not a US copyright. It doesn't follow US copyright law for expiration for example. I'm not a copyright lawyer, I've just looked into it before. This is my layman's understanding after talking to a lawyer.