RE: Re: Life + Years Ule

Laurie described a scheme to ensure that copyright only subsisted 25 years after publication if contact information for authors and rights-holders were registered.

Only problem is, the Berne Convention (to which the US is a signatory), states that "the enjoyment and the exercise of these rights [copyright] shall not be subject to any formality"
http://www.law.cornell.edu/treaties/berne/5.html and duration is life + 50 years not 25 years after publication http://www.law.cornell.edu/treaties/berne/7.html

Arguably, the requirement for registration to bring suit for US citizens and for costs and certain types of damages for everybody is already in breach of this clause. The US is unlikely to mess with this area without increasing the level of conformance to Berne rather than retreating from it. Intellectual property regimes are international and unilateral changes by the US (or any other nation) are increasingly difficult. The current copyright register is as close as you are likely to get.

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| Tim Arnold-Moore, Ph.D., LL.B., B.Sc. (Hons)

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