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Taiwan Rejects US Copyright Extension Demands

Posted by michael on from the guido-says-you-should-buy-insurance dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Taiwan has rejected the US's demand to extend copyrights from 50 years to 70 years. Here's the news article on the Mercury News."

18 of 295 comments (clear)

  1. ROC's copyright was only 10 years long by Andy+Tai · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In 1995 or 1996 due to US pressure copyright protection was extended from 10 to 50 years.

    Now the US wants 70 years.

    --
    Free Software: the software by the people, of the people and for the people. Develop! Share! Enhance! Enjoy!
    1. Re:ROC's copyright was only 10 years long by roalt · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I believe France already has a 70-year copyright law, while a lot of other countries (like Holland) have 50-years copyright law. So like most laws in Europe, the most stringent law survives.

  2. Damage... Yes... by Flamerule · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Washington, Taiwan's main trading partner and arms supplier, has said the island's failure to protect intellectual property rights is causing hundreds of million dollars damage annually to U.S. recorded music, software and motion picture industries.
    Oh, that's great! So the slump in music industry revenue is due to Taiwan's copyright protection lasting 50 years, instead of 70 like the US... I suppose the RIAA can stop lobbying Congress to lock down all our computers now, and focus instead on squeezing those last few hundred million dollars out of Taiwan.

    What's that you say? The movie industry is enjoying record profits? How is this possible, when in addition to Taiwan's criminal 50-year copyright protection, Jack Valenti assures me that 50 TB of pirated movies in DivX flows through the Internet each day?

    Right....

  3. Odd Move by RAzaRazor · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This seems like an odd thing to do. The US has been one of Taiwan's biggest supporter in their fight against the PRC.
    Personally, if I were in their situation, I wouldn't want to piss off anyone in the US. Especially not people in large industries.

    The legitimacy of the copyright extension still remains a question. But it's in their best interest to play along with whatever the US wants. They might tick some politician off (Senator Disney??), and then our carriers might not be in the waters between China and Taiwan the next time China decides to run "Routine Training Missions".

    1. Re:Odd Move by lingqi · · Score: 5, Interesting

      besides; US has already backed out / backstabbed taiwan on the PRC thing.

      a few moons back the taiwanese president got carried away when vid-conferencing with some activists in the states and was (caught on tape) saything stuff like "yeah you know taiwan is really its own country from the start"...

      china got pissed and issued statements about "taiwan is disrupting the stability of the straits". taiwan't stock market dropped like 20% the following monday, and the taiwan president's office apologized profusely - along the lines of "yeah he didn't know what he was saying at the time / he does not represent our ideals / he was on acid" etc... all the mean while, the US basically said: "hey listen, if you piss off china and they come after you, you (as in taiwan) are on your own, and don't expect jack shit from us."

      which is, really, kinda sad. granted US has a good reason for this: china is a BIG market and there are tons of US money poured there(*1). point being: (1) I think after the US realized that the communist(*2) government are not impeding the free-trade capitalism taking root, they stopped being so rough on it; and to sacrifice a 386B "country" to a 4.5T market (with unbelieveable potential to grow)? yeah, of course. (2) it's kinda sad that the US would go and abandon one of its storgest (as in, most faithful) allies / followers / groupies for $$, as I personally believe this is what it boiled down to; but hey... this is capitalism -- and a wise man (don't flame me now ;^) -- the guy's name is Lenin) said that (a version of it, anyway) "a capitalist would sell the roap to hang another capitalist if it meant making money..." ha! this should go down in the history books as the perfect example.

      note(*1): China is the second most economically powerful country in the world, you know -- no joke -- not japan, not taiwan, not germany; (US GDP: 9.963T; China GDP: 4.5T; Japan (3rd) GDP: 3.15T; taiwan is at a measly 386B -- all figures are 2000 estimates from maps.com atlas

      note (*2) communist / communism is a misnomer since they (PRC) don't even call *themselves* communists! the first thing they teach in school's policital science classes is that perfect communism is unachieveable (i went through the class) so the (PRC) settles on socialism instead...

      --

      My life in the land of the rising sun.

  4. In my lifetime by __aafkqj3628 · · Score: 0, Interesting

    I would agree with extending it from 50 to 70, because if I do something really profound (like Disney's Mickey mouse) and then 50 years down the line it's suddenly public property, I don't want to be alive when that happens!

    At least make it the expected age for people so they can take peace that they'll take it to their grave with them.

  5. Re:Eggroll? by jonr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It is lifetime PLUS 70 years... pretty silly, huh?

  6. Just like Australia by dmoynihan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    another country that's sticking to Life+50 (or, why you can download 1984 and The Great Gatsby from a legit server).

    Way to go, Taiwan!

  7. Re:Further reading by bstadil · · Score: 3, Interesting
    "no one can do to Disney as Disney did to the Brothers Grimm."

    This is a real bad example even though I agree with Lessig. The Grimm Bothers didn't invent or created the stories as such. They collected and wrote up old German folk tales and made them available so they could be read and cherished.

    A much better example is H.C. Andersen. He created the story about the Little Mermaid, The Little Tin soldier, etc.

    No sure what Disney stole other than the Mermaid.

    By the way. Steamboat Willie aka Mickey was lifted from a Buster Keaton film.

    --
    Help fight continental drift.
  8. Re:They Can by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 2, Interesting
    What is America going to do raise the tariffs?

    America could say "Listen... Our way or the Mainland way!" These are the advantages of being a super-empire.

  9. I want to extend copyright even further by JohnsonWax · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'd like to see copyright extended to 2,500 years, and it should be retroactive like the previous laws. That way I can copyright the Bible and *really* rake in the bucks.

    Disney thinks so small sometimes...

    1. Re:I want to extend copyright even further by Homburg · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Interestingly, the King James edition of the bible has a perpetual copyright in the UK (it predates modern copyright law, but is covered by its own special law). The lucky buggers who've got permission to produce copies (Cambridge University Press being one, I believe) are really raking it in.

  10. Re:Further reading by x136 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    This is a real bad example even though I agree with Lessig. The Grimm Bothers didn't invent or created the stories as such. They collected and wrote up old German folk tales and made them available so they could be read and cherished.

    That's exactly the point. They took something in the public domain and remade it, and when that entered the public domain, Disney remade it. Except that now, Disney's remade versions aren't passing into the public domain to allow the next generation of interpretation.
    --
    SIGFEH
  11. art vs. commerce by shortbus+mutiny · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The extension of copyright terms clearly is of no benefit to society as a whole, apart from the additional revenue they would generate into the United States from abroad. Literature from the period 1908 and 1928 will now be under the complete control of their owners, which are mostly major corporations. A work of art is now deprived from the view of the public, and will in many cases be unavailable completely. Copyright holders often like to hold onto their material EVEN IF they're not currently publishing and selling the work. This is because of ZERO benefit the copyright holders will receive by releasing it to the public, and the marginally possible benefit of a revival in the unpublished work's popularity. In essence art, which is undisputably helpful and necessary to the advancement of society as a whole, will either become more expensive (unaffordable), or unavailable. I fail to see how the additional money the US will make, justifies any concession from art to commerce.

  12. Movies available on DVD in Taiwan, not in US by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I just purchased
    "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea"
    "Incredibly True Story of Two Girls in Love"

    From Taiwan, through ebay. While the former is very famous, the latter is just a sexy film, unfortunately censored. Altogether, though, neither excellent film was available in DVD format, legally, in the US.

    So I support Taiwan's loose intellectual laws. Increasing copyright terms means 20,000 Leagues video might not be available for another 20 years.

    It seems to me the copyright profits exceed the value of the content coming from the movie industry. It is no longer a copyright "bargain," but a copyright "ripoff."

    Torsten

  13. Copyright is a Mickey Mouse game. by Bun · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Seriously. Look at every time the copyright term has been extended, and look at which vital piece of Disney's 'intellectual property' was about to enter the public domain. It's rather sad. You can learn more about this depressing trend in our shockingly greedy erahere.

    --
    "Anyone that has ever gotten an idea based on any of my work and done something better with it-good for you."--J.Carmack
  14. Re:So? Harmonize already... by tempfile · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Hmm, that's where the dog bites its own tail. I always thought the EU would blindly adopt US legislation.

  15. Re:Copyright reform by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting
    copyrights for those works/characters can be extended up to 100 years.

    I research Australian World War I history, all the government photographs for that period were no longer protected by the Australian Copyright Act of 1968 in 1969. There are only a couple of Australian World War I veterans left, predominantly the only way the story of Australia's world war I experience can be told is through recorded words and images. Adding one hundred years to that would mean these words and images are should be cultural heritage now would not be cultural heritage until 2018. Far too long, the whole generation will be gone by then.

    US Copyright currently protects back to 1922, if another 5 years is added to US Copyright protection, World War I will be engulfed and the words and images of America's history of that conflict will be stifled and suffocated. Like Australia most of the American World War I veterans are gone too.

    Copyright disrupts and interferes with cultural heritage. Cultural concerns should always trump mere commercial concerns. As a World War I historian, I also had to fight off a bad intepretation of the Australian Copyright Act by the Australian War Memorial. They were wrong and i was right, I had every right ot use the image in the manner I did. However, that monopoly when mis-intepreted has the ability to stifle cultural story telling and history.

    mocom--