!@!Re: [Upd-discuss] a longer term strategy for promoting the public domain?

[Michael Hart]

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004, Lars Aronsson wrote:

> Michael Hart wrote:
>> I would write a letter to every government in the entire world,
>> asking if there is a home for shorter copyrights to counteract
>> the longer copyrights being imposed by WIPO et al on the rest
>> of the world. . .perhaps suggesting a home for the public domain.
>
> Sorry, I didn't understand what you meant here.  Could you explain
> again what the question to those governments would be?

The basic question would be:

"Is there a possible home for the public domain in your country?"

Or for a public domain center. . .virtual or bricks and mortar.


> I think that we could do more digging into the 1923-1953 era.  Some
> authors who died in this period might have noone left to defend their
> extended copyrights, which means we could get away with digitizing
> their works before those 70 years have passed.  This is on the edge of
> taking a risk, which I know PG's experts would advise against.

Actually we are doing massive work to establish a record of which
copyrights were not renewed. . .this would eliminate most risks.


Thanks!

Michael