Re: Constitutional Challenge to (C) Code

Joseph Pietro Riolo <riolo[_at_]voicenet.com> wrote:
>
> On Mon, 30 Mar 1998, Terry Carroll wrote:
> >
> > On Sat, 28 Mar 1998, Bob Smith <cosmith[_at_]ash.palni.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > > What would be the likelyhood of success for a Constitutional Challenge
> > > of the Duration of Copyright under both current and pending US Code?
> > > It seems to me that life plus fifty-seventy years does not "promote
> > > the progress of science and the useful arts by securing for limited
> > > time." I do not understand how a lifetime beyond my lifetime is
> > > limited and how it guarentees my right to my work when I am dead.
> > > Class action, anyone?
> >
> > The difficulty would be finding a defendant for the class action.
>
> Or, to turn the table around, one can try to be sued. Say, if a
> person has a book whose copyright is to be expired at the end of this
> year (end of Dec. 31, 1998) but is extended by the stupid law for
> 20 more years, he/she can copy the book to, say, a web site and wait
> for the lawsuit from the copyright owner.

It's easier than that ... all one needs to do is digitize and publish a clip from the original Mickey Mouse movie -- doesn't Disney have a reputation for agressively protecting its copyrights? It has been noted before that there is a certain coincidence in the push for copyright extension and the impending public domainhood of some well-known cartoon characters. Any guesses as to who is funding the lobbyists?

But wouldn't it be more effective to defeat the effort up front than try to get it reversed later? The internet can be an effective tool for grass-roots communication (witness all of the business cards still being sent to little what's-his-name in England, or the ubiquity of the Neiman Marcus Cookie Recipe) and this is an issue which should interest many netizens -- yet I see no signs of an effective grass-roots campaign to kill this legislation. What's up?

Laureen C. Urquiaga HBLL Copyright / Electronic Publications Officer

Digital Imaging Department                          Laureen_Urquiaga[_at_]byu.edu
Harold B. Lee Library
Brigham Young University                                  TEL:  801-378-3821
P.O. Box 26881                                            FAX:  801-378-6708
Provo, UT  84602-6881