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In The Non-US Public Domain

Posted by michael on from the don't-touch-that-mouse dept.

truthsearch writes "Lawrence Lessig's weblog points to 'a page by John Mark Ockerbloom at the University of Pennsylvania listing books that are in the public domain elsewhere but not, because of the Copyright Term Extension Act, in the United States. Check out the books you are not allowed to download.' Includes books like 'Animal Farm' and '1984'."

3 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Okay, question time... by (trb001) · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm not trying to get around the copyright, but I have an honest question. If I were to download these books and then bring them into the US, would that be an illegal act? Specifically, how would I declare them when coming into the country? I doubt any immigration people have a clue about online books, let alone which ones are copyrighted.

    I suppose it's the same case as coming into the US from Amsterdam and carrying weed with you, but it would seem that immigration is probably more apt to ask you about drugs than illegal books.

    --trb

  2. Wow. Makes ya wonder... by realgone · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So I'm reading through that list of books which I'm certainly not downloading the background as I type this -- *cough* -- and I noticed Mein Kampf is on the list of copyright-extended titles. The first question that pops into my head is: "Who's getting the royalty checks on that nowadays?"

  3. Interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    In today's "information economy", knowledge is power. And now we have news of a real situation where everybody is allowed to freely access several important pieces of work .. except if you happen to live in the United States, that is. And the irony is that this is because of a particularly silly law from these same United States!

    In light of recent events, I wonder if Congress might not be willing to reconsider this law. Broadly interpreted, the intent of this law can almost be considered as treasonous. In a world where knowledge is power, it seems to me that it is borderline sedition to have a government forcibly restrict its citizens from access to knowledge that the rest of the world has for free. I don't see how Congress can (non-hypocritically) express support for U.S. troops in foreign lands while at the same time expressing support for legislation that prevents the American people from arming themselves with information that we may well need to fight the war on terrorism.