Re: The Eric Eldred Act

Nancy Willard writes:
>This approach could have great benefit for Hollywood. With more works
>coming into the public domain, they would have greater ability to find
>creative material that they could use without having to pay the
creator.

Seems to me that the fundamental problem here is that strong IP protection tends to favor the big established corporations who can afford lawyers and permissions organizations. That's certainly true as they assert their rights to their own works (how many ISVs can afford thhe legal counsel that Microsoft employs in drafting their restrictive EULAs?). It's probably also true in acquiring rights to works they want to use.

The problem is that the typical individual doesn't have easy access to a mechanism for securing permissions or for understanding when they are needed, doesn't have the resources to invest in permissions that might someday result in an economically viable derivative work, and may not even have as a goal the creation of a work that will generate revenues to offset the cost of permissions.

Nancy's argument might be much more strongly made for independent filmmakers rather than for the media giants. It is certainly more strongly made for the 4th grader who is interested in producing an iMovie fairy tale for her school but who, if she is to take the law seriously, needs to spend a lot of money first on hiring a lawyer to acquire copyright permissions and research trademark infringement.

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