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

[David Basskin]

Michael Hart wrote:

>
>>>
>>> Actually we are doing massive work to establish a record of which
>>> copyrights were not renewed. . .this would eliminate most risks.
>>
>>
>> It might eliminate risks in the United States, the only territory 
>> which had a regime of copyright renewal. Canada, for instance, has 
>> never had a regime of copyright renewal. It's always been life of the 
>> author plus 50 years. Likewise for most other territories.
>>
>> Hello, Americans! "We Are The World" is just the name of a song.
>>
>> David Basskin
>
>
> I think you are missing the point, hopefully unintentionally.
>
> The reply was to a message specifying PG.
>
> While Project Gutenberg is multinational, _I_ can only post
> books that are public domain under US copyright law. . .so
> my expertise, and thus my answer, is mostly relevent to US law.
>
> However, we also cooperate with other public domain listing
> services that work under various other copyright laws.
>
> In fact, we are in the process of setting up our first
> Project Gutenberg Consortia Center which is expressly
> designed to assist the distribution of materials that
> are public domain under specific copyright periods.
>
> Since the original Project Gutenberg is located in the US,
> we are limited to posting works that are public domain in the US.
>
> However, we are also working on a Project Gutenberg Consorta Center
> for each of the other major copyright periods: life +50, +60 and +70.
>
> Obviously I can't personally run such sites, unless I keep moving from
> one jurisdiction to another to keep them going, so my own expertise is
> mainly US copyright law, about which I know hundreds of times more than
> I ever wanted to know, believe me.
>
> However, it IS time to set up the other Project Gutenberg Consortia 
> Centers
> so that when Australia, for example, gets hit with their new copyright
> extension from +50 to +70, their work can be preserved for the remaining
> "life +50" countries.
>
> The first PGCC site will officially open on November 4, but you can test
> it out at:
>
> gutenberg.us  [contains eBooks in 104 languages]
>
> Obviously it is only intended for works that are public domain in the US,
> or those copyrighted works for which we have permission to redistribute.
>
> Project Gutenberg of Europe will hopefully be testing a similar effort
> next year, which will include two sites, one for +50 and one for +70.
>
> We are also working on starting a Project Gutenerg of India for +60,
> which will also swap with Venezuela.
>
> Then we hope to move on to the remaining copyright periods around
> the world.
>
>
> Thanks!!!
>
>
> Nice To Hear From You!
>
>
> Michael
>
Thanks for your reply. I appreciate your having clarified these issues. 
I think your project is admirable and I encourage you to extend it to 
include musical works which are in the public domain. Given that in most 
territories, including Canada, there has never been a system of 
copyright renewal, clear identification of authorship and the date of 
death of the author is all you should need in order to compile a 
register of works in the public domain in such territories. Sounds to me 
like considerably less work than what you face in the USA.

David Basskin