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[dvd-discuss] RE: Perpetual Copyright via revision (was: Eldred Amicus)



Hello -- me new guy.  IANAL.  You've stumbled onto
something very interesting with the "Star Wars"
question, whether the versions released in 1995, 1997
or 2006 (?) qualify as new "works" wrt/term length.  

It's been industry-standard practice for distributors
to include two copyright notices on most catalog DVDs:
the year of first publication, and the year of DVD
release.  This is typically in movies called "special
editions," or "remasters"/"restorations."  It's almost
never clear from the packaging exactly what the
greater copyright date applies to.  The possibilities
I can think of are:

1.) the (remastered) film as a whole,
2.) newly-inserted/modified elements of the film,
3.) special features & supplements as a whole,
4.) presentation of special features & supplements (if
compiled from works *fixed* well before first
publication, like never-before-seen, on-the-set
footage),
5.) DVD authorship content (and/or disc navigation
programming).

Obviously (1) is of the most danger.  If Congress was
content (and federal judges complicit) with enacting
CTEA for film preservation, it's not a far step to
suggest that a "new edition" copyright granted ONLY to
keep an extant work in the marketplace might be
understood as a legitimate exercise of the copyright
power.  That defies the whole point of adding 20 years
to the term (giving content owners an opportunity to
recoup restoration costs), but it wouldn't be the
first time Congressional intent has been ignored to
advance an encroaching copyright power (COUGH!!
elcomsoft).

We won't really know how all of this plays out until
an old movie, say the 1996 restored "Vertigo," falls
into the public domain.  That could be any of 

2091 (CTEA, restoration defeats P.D.)
2071 (nixed CTEA, restoration defeats P.D.)
2053 (CTEA)
2052 (nixed CTEA, nixed '76, restoration defeats P.D.)
2033 (nixed CTEA)
2014 (nixed CTEA, nixed '76)

Given that the '76 Act is in no danger and most
Senators will be dead before anyone begins to wonder,
I'm sure Congress is in no particular rush to clarify
this little question and risk PO'ing their benevolent
patrons.  

--mattperkins/minneapolis

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