RE: [dvd-discuss] Petition for rational copyright law

[Wendy Seltzer <wendy(at)seltzer.com>]

At 20:38 -0400 6/3/03, Jim Bauer wrote:
>I have trouble seeing how this will work.  Of course, I have
>trouble seeing how the current system works too.

So movement from very broken to slightly-less broken is progress.

>How would I tell is the copyright holder did indeed pay
>their $1 at the 50 year mark?  If I assume there is some
>sort of copyright registration required for the extention
>then I am still left whith determining how to search it.

A part of the proposal is that copyright holders be required to 
complete a form like the current copyright registration form along 
with the 50-year fee.  Along with that, I think, is a suggestion that 
the filed forms be made easily searchable by the public.

>For something big, like a movie, that might be easy.  But
>how can I search for something small like a posting to a mailing
>list like this?

By the time this passes, we'll have evolved better search mechanisms 
for the data :)

>What we need IMO is to know, from the moment of publication,
>the date a copyrighted worke gains PD status.

Also good, but unfortunately incompatible with the current life+N 
system (never mind the life+N+n+n+n ad infinitum).

--Wendy

-- 
--
Wendy Seltzer -- wendy@seltzer.com || wendy@eff.org
Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/seltzer.html