« on competing with free | Main | ticketstubs »

the race to the top continues

January 3, 2003 11:22 AM - comments (6)

There's a very interesting article in the Times (registration blah blah blah) about a new push in Europe to increase copyright terms. Let's remember the sequence here. Germany increased its terms to compensate for WWII. The EU then increased its terms to match Germany. The US then increased its terms to "harmonize" with the EU. That was the Sonny Bono Act. But of course, the "harmony" of the Sonny Bono Act was like some of the worst of the Bono and Cher acts -- disharmony. (For a chart showing how the Sonny Bono Act actually increased disharmony between US and EU terms, see Dennis Karjala's page). So to respond to the disharmony caused by the Sonny Bono Act, now Europe is calling for another increase in their term. Japan too is doing the same.

Jason Schultz's work shows clearly what we've been arguing for a very long time: Longer terms lock up much more than it could ever benefit. This spiral of increasing terms will mean that less will be available, not more. Obviously, there is a world of work to do before this message is understood.

Posted on January 3, 2003 11:22 AM | | technorati

Comments (6)

January 8, 2003 2:20 AM Anonymous:

Richard Morrison predicted this over three years ago in a column in the London Times:

"All this madness has been exacerbated by recent draconian extensions to copyright law. Britain used to have a perfectly adequate 50-years-after-death copyright rule. But in 1995 the European Union decided that all copyrights should be harmonised. Since Germany had a 70-year rule, we were instructed to toe that line. Then last year the US extended its 75-year copyright rule by a further 20 years - primarily because Disney lobbied Congress to keep Mickey Mouse in copyright. Now, presumably, the EU will add another few years in order to 'harmonise' with America."
January 8, 2003 2:22 AM Anonymous:

The hyperlink facility doesn't seem to work. Here's the URL for the Morrison column:

http://www.times-archive.co.uk/news/pages/tim/99/06/29/timopnope01002.html

October 11, 2003 2:51 PM Lesko:

Doesn't seem fair. The big money guys always get their way at the expense of the rest of us.

October 14, 2008 4:24 AM Rolex DateJust watches:

Rolex DateJust watches made with swiss movement ! so cheap and high quality ! accept paypal ,and 14 days money back without reason !

November 14, 2008 7:33 AM ghost gold :

After the exercise ghost gold I thought I can use the sword better.

November 14, 2008 7:39 AM ghost money:

We are almost ghost money same level in the game. One of my friends said I was better than before.

Post a comment

By entering the words in the box, you are also helping to digitize texts that were written before the computer age. The words that you see were taken directly from old texts that are being scanned and stored by the Internet Archive. This CAPTCHA helps proofread the books. If the sample is too hard to read, click the recycle button to get another two. A space between each word is required. And thanks for the comment and help.