consider the sheer scope of it. There are hundreds of thousands of books published each year. Each one of those gets copyright protection. Every picture, every email, every piece of doggeral, everything! There are millions of things that CAN be copyrighted each year. But according to our universal copyright law the copyright exists whether or not I register it. There are already millions of works already copyrighted without the benefit of having numbers attached to them.
But what is simpler? Affixing a copyright notice and a date on the work with the universal understanding that after N years the work is in the public domain or a system where every work requires a search. BTW-the search may be a simple as going to www.copyright.gov but must also be available in other forms as well.
The basic problem that the Berne Convention, WIPO and now the US Legislature did not address all the times it has expanded the scope, duration, and complexity of copyright is HOW IS THIS NOW TO BE ADMINISTERED? When nothing was copyrighted unless registered, it was simple. Now that everything is copyrighted regardless they didn't change manner that copyright is administered.
Noah silva <nsilva@atari-source.com> Sent by: owner-dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
06/05/2003 06:48 AM
Please respond to dvd-discuss
To: dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
cc:
Subject: Re: [dvd-discuss] Petition for rational copyright law
>
> 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.