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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."
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!