With all of our discussion concerning alternative methods (other than copyright extension) for producing viable economic mechanisms to encourage creativity -- perhaps we should also consider the possible adverse consequences of implementing expansionist IP policies? Here is a posting from Negativland's listserv which offers some common-sense criticism of recent developments in this field:
-- I do not purport to speak for my employer or any of its clients. This transmission is not meant to be considered as legal advice. Consult an attorney for legal counsel. Nothing in this message shall be construed as a solicitation of any kind or as binding on myself, my employer, or any of its clients. This communication is meant to encourage civil discussion. It may in fact be an entirely hypothetical argument expressed for the purpose of encouraging progressive debate. David Joseph Shanta Stevens POEE, Pope 23:11 C.S.T. Vox: (512)494-9769 Fax: (512)476-9182 email: shanta[_at_]ipost.net http://www.ipost.net/scripts/ipweb.dll?Cmd=ShowWebCard&Acct=202 --Received on Tue Mar 10 1998 - 18:32:12 GMT
> To: forklifters[_at_]negativland.com
> From: mark[_at_]negativland.com (Negativland )
> Subject: Oh Good. More New (c) Laws.
> Date: Sat, 7 Mar 1998 10:43:46 -0800
> Reply-To: mark[_at_]negativland.com (Negativland )
> X-To-Unsubscribe: autoshare[_at_]negativland.com, body: unsub forklifters
>
>
> > *** House committee approves copyright extension
> >
> > Studios, authors, songwriters and their heirs will benefit from an
> > extension of current copyright terms that was approved Wednesday by
> > the House Judiciary Committee. The bill would extend copyright
> > protections to 95 years from 75 years for works for hire, such as
> > movies and scripts. It would also extend copyright protection for
> > authors of fiction and non-fiction works from life plus 50 years to
> > life plus 70 years. Also in the bill is a non-binding "sense of
> > Congress" resolution to encourage studios to enter negotiations with
> > directors, screenwriters and actors for royalties long overdue. See
> > <http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2553206211-f77>
>
>
> In other words, nobody will ever live long enough to see a piece of major
> media that's released in their lifetime fall into the public domain.
>
> Major media companies have now bought themselves another 20 years to
> spend convincing Congress to extend the term of copyright _again_; the
> practical difference between this process and a de facto permanent term
> of copyright is negligible. A permanent copyright term only discourages
> diversity and circulation of culture... when a work gets old enough,
> the relevance of copyright protection as a motivation for creation is
> past and the relevance of hoarding and copyright paranoia as inhibitors
> to circulation increase. Old stuff will no longer get rediscovered
> because copyright will keep it out of public view. Net result? Only
> profitable (= popular) works will be available, ever. Fewer businesses
> furnishing more copies of fewer works; narrowing of stimulus; narrowing
> of public mind; monolithic culture; forgetting of the culture that came
> before.
>
> And let's examine the justification of that 'authors, songwriters and
> their heirs will benefit' part a little more closely: exactly -which-
> authors, songwriters and their heirs will benefit? Only the ones whose
> works are still getting sold after their creators have been dead for 50
> years, which is a -very- small percentage of all the authors and
> songwriters in the world. How does it help the memory of your dear old
> Grandpa Joe, or his heirs/your family, that the recordings of his songs
> made in the 20's will -never- be heard because a defunct minor record
> label was foreclosed upon by a bank that now technically owns the
> copyrights to the commercially unpromising recordings (as the bank sees
> it), and has no plans to release them, and won't give you the rights
> because it'd cost them too much in legal fees to make the transfer?
> Which are there more of, long-lasting successful hits? Or everything
> else that ever gets made? The basic mistake here is that a few owners
> of already successful, already extremely profitable efforts are
> unnecessarily being given yet a further incremental boost, at the cost
> of a general cultural detriment to the world at large, and at the cost
> of unnecessary obscurity to all the other creators.
>
> At the risk of repeating what you already know, cultural property is not
> the same kind of property as physical property, and treating it more
> like physical property has serious human social consequences. The
> public domain exists for excellent, correct, democratically and humanly
> fundamental reasons. We in Negativland find the idea of this bill, and
> other recent erosions of the public domain, depressing in the extreme.
>
>
>
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