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The USA often ignores the international community in many things, if the right domestic interest groups are behind it. It's just that currently the USA has powe

by est31 3y ago

The USA often ignores the international community in many things, if the right domestic interest groups are behind it. It's just that currently the USA has powerful domestic companies/interests that are against copyright term extensions, which are more powerful than the (also quite powerful) companies in favour of term extensions. In the past decade, the USA also has tried to spread the new extended period over the world via trade treaties, of life plus 70 years, going beyond Berne's life plus 50 years.

abirch 3y ago
What are the powerful domestic companies/interests who are against the copyright terms? I always viewed copyright extensions as being good for the masses but bad for corporations (the copyright holders)
- bvrmn 3y ago
  > I always viewed copyright extensions as being good for the masses I have a hard time to find cases when it's true in the context of media content.
- est31 3y ago
  Companies like Google for example. Their business model revolves around accessing websites of other people, downloading them, keeping that copy around and then presenting snippets to people who. Here is them arguing against retroactively applying a 70 year old copyright term in Canada to works published before 1978: https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/strategic-policy-sector/sites/default/files/attachments/2022/Google.pdf https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/strategic-policy-sector/sit... > For instance, if an author created a work at 30 -- the average age for a first childbirth in Canada -- and died at the average age of 82, with a copyright term of life of the author plus 50 years, and if the average of 25 years for a generation, we are into the fifth generation after creation of the work. Adding on another 20 years only compounds the capacity of heirs of authors to leverage extended copyright to prevent Canadians from accessing valuable cultural (and by that time historical) works. We have seen numerous examples of distantly removed heirs leveraging old copyright to prevent commentators from quoting extensively from well established works, or preventing historical pictures, news-clipping and other primary sources from being used without payment. And indeed, it was implemented that way: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_Canada#Extension_of_copyright_term https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_Canada#Extens...
kbenson 3y ago
Ignoring the international community is one thing, trade deals are another thing entirely. That's taken very seriously by all involved because it's about money.

by est31 3y ago

abirch 3y ago

What are the powerful domestic companies/interests who are against the copyright terms? I always viewed copyright extensions as being good for the masses but bad for corporations (the copyright holders)

bvrmn 3y ago
> I always viewed copyright extensions as being good for the masses I have a hard time to find cases when it's true in the context of media content.
est31 3y ago
Companies like Google for example. Their business model revolves around accessing websites of other people, downloading them, keeping that copy around and then presenting snippets to people who. Here is them arguing against retroactively applying a 70 year old copyright term in Canada to works published before 1978: https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/strategic-policy-sector/sites/default/files/attachments/2022/Google.pdf https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/strategic-policy-sector/sit... > For instance, if an author created a work at 30 -- the average age for a first childbirth in Canada -- and died at the average age of 82, with a copyright term of life of the author plus 50 years, and if the average of 25 years for a generation, we are into the fifth generation after creation of the work. Adding on another 20 years only compounds the capacity of heirs of authors to leverage extended copyright to prevent Canadians from accessing valuable cultural (and by that time historical) works. We have seen numerous examples of distantly removed heirs leveraging old copyright to prevent commentators from quoting extensively from well established works, or preventing historical pictures, news-clipping and other primary sources from being used without payment. And indeed, it was implemented that way: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_Canada#Extension_of_copyright_term https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_Canada#Extens...

kbenson 3y ago

Ignoring the international community is one thing, trade deals are another thing entirely. That's taken very seriously by all involved because it's about money.