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Mexico to Abolish the Public Domain?

Posted by chrisd on from the formerly-free-country dept.

Anonymous Mexican Coward writes "The mexican congress is considering a revision of the copyright law. Among other changes the law will extend the term of copyright from life-plus-70 to life-plus-100, and at the end of that term, the mexican government has the right to charge royalties for works in the "public domain." Go Mexico! Check it out"

8 of 375 comments (clear)

  1. Go Mexico? by stagmeister · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Why is this "Go Mexico"??

    They're extending copyright and abolishing the copyright domain.

    Let's fix that typo: BOO MEXICO!

    --
    http://www.virtualvillagesquare.com/ Online Communities: The Next Generation
  2. A world without public domain... by ajuda · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Imagine how efficient it would be if we all had to pay royalties every time we made a fire, or used a wheel. By the way, does anyone wonder what would happen if the government taxed the bible (which is in public domain)? I think it could get a lot of people angry.

    1. Re:A world without public domain... by CaptainCarrot · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The more recent translations of the Bible are copyrighted by the translators, who receive royalties on sales just like any other copyright holder. The King James Version is in the public domain in the US, but in the UK (where they call it the Authorised Version) the Crown holds a perpetual copyright on it and receives license fees from everyone in the country who publishes it.

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      And the brethren went away edified.
  3. RTFA before knee-jerking by KNicolson · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I see it says:

    The amendment has been strongly supported by authors and collecting societies but on the other hand; it has been rejected by the industry.

    Really? Authors and their estate managers want longer copyright, but the industry doesn't. Isn't it usually the other way round in the USA? Does anyone who understands the issue in detail wish to comment on why?

  4. Re:Situational Irony by Fulcrum+of+Evil · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Just out of curiosity, is Micro$oft required to release the source of MS-DOS 1.0 when/if the copyright expires, or does just the binary form become public domain? The source is copyright too, no?

    Why does copyright law apply at all? It's not as if MS ever published the source for any of its DOS versions.

    --
    "We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
  5. Re:Breaking news! by lamber45 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well, I would go to Mexico and protest this law, but I can't because it's against their constitution for a foreigner to do anything of the sort (Article 33).

  6. Open source projects ... by Aceticon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ... should be safe as long as anyone is contributing to that project (+ remaining life of that someone + 100 years).

    If an open source project has not have contributions for 100+ years, then i don't really care if the Government of Mexico can charge royalties on it.

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    On a side note, i suspect that the works of Aristotelis, Plato and Omero will become more expensive to buy in Mexico. Same thing for traditional Mexican music.

  7. Project Gutenberg by guamman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This policy would of course destroy anything like Project Gutenberg if such a project existed in Mexico. Kind of like killing the original open source, no?