Copyright reform suggestions, part 1 February 12, 2008
Posted by Kevin Smith in : Copyright Information Notes, Copyright Issues and Legislation, Technologies , trackbackI am a little ashamed to admit that, at the American Library Association meeting last month, I learned about a very problematic provision of the
For some odd reason, Congress crafted an exception for sound recordings that were made prior to February 15, 1972. Those recordings, instead of being subject to the normal copyright rules, continue to be protected by state law until 2067. State protection, which was usually created by judges rather than legislators, often allowed perpetual protection for unpublished works, but were not designed to deal with other materials. Leaving these historical sound recordings subject to the patchwork of state laws has meant that, in fact if not by intent, these historical materials are subject to the most restrictive of state laws and for all practical purposes unusable until 2067. For the earliest recordings, which date from the 1890s, this amounts to a copyright term of over 170 years. Since even preservationists are reluctant to make copies under this bizarre and uncertain regime, many recordings are locked up by copyright for longer that the usable life of the medium in which they are recorded; they will be irretrievably lost before they are available in the public domain.
So here is an opportunity to reform our copyright act to mitigate one of its most pernicious effects – the unnecessary loss of our cultural heritage merely to time and decay – without harming anyone’s economic interests. In fact, compilations of some of these old recordings that are available for sale in other countries but technically infringing in the
Comments»
no comments yet - be the first?