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

[Noah silva <nsilva(at)atari-source.com>]

> 
> Or just require the seemingly hopelessly old fashioned requirment for having 
> every work have a copyright notice with a date attached. Add XX years to the 
> date and anyone can figure out when the copyright expires. While accountants 
> and some intellectual property lawyers may proclaim life + n years a superior 
> system, it fails the KISS test.
> 
> The Berne Convention is a bad idea. The USA spent 100 years avoiding it and the 
> wisdom of that is evident to anyone without a vested interest.ANY copyright 
> scheme which requires a registry system will become hopelessly complicated to 
> the point that noone can possibly know when copyright ends.
> 

Why do you think this? The registry system could be incredibly
simple.  Everyone registers their copyrights now, just that it's not as
organized or simple as it could be.  I agree that every copyright should
be assigned a number, and be in an easily searchable database.  Then when
a book or CD says "Copyright No. 76245674", you could hop on copyright.gov
and check out the details of the copyright, when it expires, when/how many
times it was renewed, owner transfers, etc.

thanks,
    noah silva