Re: The Eric Eldred Act

What about a system, similar to Canada's, that allows the use of copyrighted works if the author cannot be located under some sort of limited license? To be useful, the licenses would probably have to be easier to obtain than the ones in Canada. Maybe some kind of standardized license fee could be charged, which would be paid to the Library of Congress and turned over to the Copyright owner if he shows up and demands royalties. That would at least address the issue of republication of works when the original author (or her successors) can't be located.

kwg

Kevin W. Grierson
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>>> carroll[_at_]tjc.com 01/29/03 03:00AM >>> On Sun, 26 Jan 2003, Eric Eldred wrote:

> It is for a tiny tax on works in the 50th year of copyright. If the tax is
> not paid, the work would enter the public domain.

This would violate Article 5(2) of the Berne Convention; Article 9(1) of GATT/TRIPS; Article 1(1) of the WIPO Copyright Treaty; Article 20 of the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty; and Article 1703(2) of NAFTA.

Apart from that...

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