The Borderless Internet A Problem For International Copyright Issues
from the this-ought-to-be-fun dept
Earlier this year, some people noticed that many parts of Europe have 50 year copyrights rather than the quasi-permanent copyright now found in the US. What that means, is that come January, the first Elvis Presley song goes into the European public domain (unless, as some expect, a legal change is made). Now, here's where it gets tricky. If Elvis' songs are public domain in Europe, what's to stop an American from getting on a European website and getting the song? To get an idea of what might happen, just look at what happened when the Australian affiliate of Project Gutenberg (the site the posts the text of books in the public domain) put the text of "Gone With The Wind" online. The book is still under American copyright, but has moved into the public domain in Australia. Despite that, they received a cease and desist letter. If that holds, then it would mean that the strictest interpretation of copyright law automatically applies to the rest of the world, which seems a little extreme.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Tragety of the Commons
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Tragety of the Commons
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Tragety of the Commons
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
re: Lowest Common Denominator
[ link to this | view in chronology ]