RE: [dvd-discuss] [openlaw] Government takes more extreme lineinsecond"Eldred" case

["Michael A Rolenz" <Michael.A.Rolenz(at)aero.org>]

In the case of multiple authors it's the death of the last one I believe. 
As for the company going under, presumably the intellectual property is 
part of its assets that get sold off in bankruptcy...but you raise a 
REALLY tantalizing question about intellectual property that is not 
accounted for and gets lost in the bankruptcy proceedings [oops accidents 
do happen]? Furthermore, assume the company stays solvent for 120+ yrs. 
How many companies actually keep records that long? Or keep the same 
names, divisions or what? I wish the boneheads that propose or even 
advocate such a term be forced to address the issue"how does one 
administer something that long?" 




"Ballowe, Charles" <CBallowe@usg.com>
Sent by: owner-dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
01/11/02 10:05 AM
Please respond to dvd-discuss

 
        To:     "'dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu'" <dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu>
        cc: 
        Subject:        RE: [dvd-discuss] [openlaw] Government takes more extreme 
lineinsecond"Eldred" case


What about works done as a work-for-hire, or with multiple authors?
What about those authored by a corporation? Do they only enter the 
public domain if the company goes under?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael A Rolenz [mailto:Michael.A.Rolenz@aero.org]
> Sent: Friday, January 11, 2002 11:28 AM
> To: dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
> Subject: Re: [dvd-discuss] [openlaw] Government takes more extreme
> lineinsecond"Eldred" case
> 
> 
> Landes and Posner stated that
> "A point stressed in the
> legistive history of the 1976 act is that, by making the death of the
> author the determining date for copyright protection, "all of the
> authors works, including successive revisions of them would fall into
> the public domain at the same time, thus avoiding the present problems
> of determining a multiple of publication dates and 
> distinguishing "old"
> from "new" matter in later editions."
> 
> Now that's quite a straw man argument. All those bad old problems 
> associated with putting a copyright date on works get solved 
> by replacing 
> that with the author's death which is something that 
> everybody knows and 
> can easily find out!Too bad they never heard of diff either!
> 
> 
>