Public Domain Enhancement Act petition

EricEldred writes "Please sign the petition and support the proposed Public Domain Enhancement Act. See eldred.cc for details. 'This statute would require American copyright owners to pay a very low fee (for example, $1) fifty years after a copyrighted work was published. If the owner pays the fee, the copyright will continue for whatever duration Congress sets. But if the copyright is not worth even $1 to the owner, then we believe the work should pass into the public domain.'" See the brief description of the Act if you aren't familiar with what Eldred and Lessig are proposing.

Comments

Hmmm, nice idea.

[FroMan]

Except, it really isn't too difficult for Disney or any other company to handle this process fairly automatically.

Maybe a last sale date would be a better method. For instance, if a book is not released within the last 5 years, it enters a public domain license. Or similar with a movie or software.

Basically its the same idea. If something copyrighted is not worth making money with, it enters public domain. Ofcourse then Disney would then be able to release Mickey Mouse every five years to not lose copyright, but then the public has access to that.

I know there are a number of CDs that I simpley don't have access to since they are out of print. This would allow me to have access to 80's hair bands that no longer get any money from their product.

That big sucking sound you hear....

[dacarr]

...is the sound of the servers going down due to the Slashdot Effect.

Re:Sins of omission

[taustin]

If you would bother to actually read the links, you'd find that it's a "small fee" every five years thereafter.