[Upd-discuss] Public Domain is a Crime

[Elizabeth Stark]

Of course-- my point is that unless they are otherwise digitized/put on
video/etc., they become de facto under copyright, since very few people have
access to film projectors (let alone the films themselves)...

Quoting michael.davis@law.csuohio.edu:

> You must realize however that those works are derivative works only to the
> extent of the new treatment. The underlying original work is still public
> domain material and freely useable.
>
>
> > Quoting Yannick Delbecque <yannick.delbecque@mail.mcgill.ca>:
> >
> >> [2005-12-16 12:48, P.L.Hayes]
> >> > "a film will still be copyrighted even if it is in the public domain"
> >> >
> >> > "Please let me know what you think about this."
> >>
> >> Apart from making me speculate about the incompetence of this person,
> >> this make me think about ways to promote explicitely the protection and
> >> widest possible usage of public domain material.
> >>
> >> One possible way to achive this could be to legally force anyone using
> >> public domain material in a new work or product to identify it
> >> explicitely as such. If DVDs were distributed beginning with a video
> >> notice like "This work is in the public domain" instead of the overly
> >> repeted message that it is criminal to share the movie, many people
> >> might start to think about using these work themselves.
> >
> > This reminds me of a (US) case I recently read that ruled that a video of
> > a film
> > that had fallen into the public domain due to lack of renewal was still a
> > valid
> > derivative work and was thus protectable under copyright law. (Maljack
> > Prods.
> > v. UAV Corp.) The creators of the video had merely digitized the
> > soundtrack
> > ("sweetened, equalized, balanced, made into stereo" as they claimed) and
> > changed the aspect ratio of the film, but the court ruled that this was
> > sufficient to constitute a derivative work. Thus by extension, even DVD
> > versions of PD films may still be under copyright. I'm not sure if there's
> > been
> > a case on the DVD issue in particular, but it would be interesting to see.
> >
> > I find this particularly troubling because many PD films are not available
> > in
> > digital format (of course we should encourage digitization efforts such as
> > by
> > the internet archive), and thus since putting a PD film on DVD requires
> > audio/video digitization and changing of aspect ratio, PD films released
> > on DVD
> > can regain copyright protection. Even if a court were to rule that mere
> > digitization alone was not sufficient, those creating such DVDs could
> > easily
> > "sweeten" the soundtrack to make it protectable...
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Yannick Delbecque - http://yannick.delbecque.org
> >> Cogitateurs-Agitateurs - http://cogitateurs-agitateurs.org
> >> FACIL, pour l'appropriation collective de l'informatique libre -
> >> http://facil.qc.ca
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Upd-discuss mailing list
> >> Upd-discuss@lists.essential.org
> >> http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/upd-discuss
> >>
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Upd-discuss mailing list
> > Upd-discuss@lists.essential.org
> > http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/upd-discuss
> >
>
>
> Mickey Davis
> _________________________________
> Prof. Michael H. Davis
> Professor of Law
> Cleveland State Univ. College of Law
> 1801 Euclid Ave.
> Cleveland, OH 44115-2214
> (mailing address: 2121 Euclid Ave. LB 234)
> 216-687-2228
> _____________________________________________________________
> Patent Attorney Admitted to Practice Before the US Patent and Trademark
> Office Reg.No. 45,863
>
>