Re: copyright by successors of Barrie J.M.

{about J.M. Barrie & the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond St}

On Wed, 26 Jul 2000, Jeroen Hellingman <jehe[_at_]kabelfoon.nl> wrote:
>
> Isn't such a regulation against the copyright directive of the EU,
> and one of the idosynchrosities the "harmonization" of copyright
> tried to get rid off? It seems to me a most insane law, to have
> special regulations for specific works.

Culture clash. In the tradition of joined-up Europe of course it's crazy --because not rational. Them Anglo-Saxon empiricists seem to enjoy these little quirks though :-)

See the State Fairs exemption in United States Code 119... and a bunch of other special interest exemptions.

I don't see anything in the EU Directive that rules out such one-off oddities. It's difficult to see how the EU Commission could argue that this one hinders the free movement of goods and services within the Union, or that various now-faintly-bizarre but utterly-rational clauses adjusting terms of authors' rights to allow for Occupation in 1939-45 do. So there's not a lot the Commission can do about them.

Hunting for examples that might be proposed in the future, I came up with a perpetual copyright in national anthems, royalties to be paid to a fund to counter xenophobia by any means necessary. Hmm...

--
Mike Holderness
http://www.poptel.org.uk/nuj/mike
<mch[_at_]cix.compulink.co.uk>