Slashdot Mirror
Lessig's Next Copyright Proposal
Fiver-rah writes "The Supreme Court voted for Disney in Eldred vs. Ashcroft. Lessig's next proposal is a policy solution which needs our help. He proposes that 50 years after publication, a work falls into the public domain unless a small fee ($50 in the NYT piece, but he says $1 is sufficient here) is paid to a governing board. This has two important effects. First, it allows the vast majority of works to fall into the public domain. Second, it gives us a publicly searchable database of copyright holders, so we could easily determine what was free and what was not. Support this proposal by writing to your elected officials! We couldn't make much of a difference with the Supreme Court, but we can with Congress." Update: 01/18 20:50 GMT by T : Related news: An anonymous reader writes "With the support of Lessig infoAnarchy has set up a wiki page devoted to copyright issues."
Did Walt Disney create the concept of a mouse? No. Did Disney invent animation? No. Did the idea of naming any given mouse "Mickey" originate with Walt Disney? I find it hard to believe that no one in the history of the English language up to this time hasn't seen fit to name a mouse "Mickey"
What Walt Disney created was the "look and feel" of Mickey.
In order to determine whether Disney and interests should hold ownership to Mickey for all eternity, the question, "Did Walt Disney use prior works or things and events outside himself in his development of Mickey?" needs to be examined The first work Mickey starred in was "Plane Crazy" in May 15 1928, in which Mickey tries to emulate his hero, Charles Lindbergh, and woo Minnie with his own, homemade airplane.
Should everyone who wants to build an airplane or put one in a movie have to go back to the Wright brothers, their family or their corporation for permission?
Did Walt Disney invent hero worship or even the idea that someone might want to emulate Charles Lindbergh? No. Did Walt Disney invent the art of courtship? No.
Mickey's second work "Steamboat Willie" borrows heavily from the Buster Keaton work "Steamboat Bill" In a portion of the script for "Steamboat Willie," it is written "Orchestra starts playing opening verses of "Steamboat Bill"
Lessig has proposed an impeccable scheme. In essence, the term of copyright for almost all works is automatically shortened to 50 years, and any works that remain copyrighted beyond that date (up until the maximum of 95 years) are placed in a central registry. If you find a work that may be copyrighted, but that work is over 50 years old, and doesn't have an entry in the registry, then it's public. The small number of works that will remain on the registry, for example Mickey Mouse, are so pathetically uncreative that it is desirable to avoid seeing them.
And the best part? Because Lessig proposes to allow individuals or corporations to take a tax credit from their income taxes equivalent to the amount they pay in copyright taxes, corporations probably won't care. They already know what all of their commercially-exploitable copyrighted works are, and simply listing them on their tax filings will be no problem. The main accomplishment of this law, if passed, will be to free from copyright works that are so obscure and unprofitable that their authors don't know what they are, and don't want to bother putting in the work to form a complete list. By Breyer's count, 98% of all copyrighted works over 50 years old fit that definition... I hope he's right.
Recently the Supreme Court decided against Eldred in Eldred v. Ashcroft. As you know, this means that copyright can be extended for an additional 20 years. The lawyer for Eldred in that case, Lawrence Lessig, has proposed a congressional compromise. (NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/18/opinion/18LESS.h tml?ex=1043470800&en=97d153dccaa9d220&ei=5007&part ner=USERLAND)
This compromise would put all works created more than 50 years ago that no longer generate revenue to to be put into the public domain. This compromise would have the effect of enriching the public domain, thus helping for more works to be created, while not damaging the revenues of any companies or persons who depend upon the copyrighted work. I urge you to look at this proprosal, and propose a bill in congress of the like.
Sincerely,
Me
You can write your congressperson in the house at http://www.house.gov/writerep/
House and Senate:
http://www.congress.org/
Sig!