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Internet Archive Loses Copyright Fight
tiltowait writes "As reported on LISNews.com, the Internet Archive has lost a copyright lawsuit which challenged the Congressional lengthening of copyright terms and conditions. The ruling has implications for abandonware and other copyright-eligible materials that have no active owner. Brewster Kahle plans to appeal the decision." The decision is available. As we noted in an earlier story, the Eldred case challenged the length of copyright expansion, this one challenged the breadth, and so far, this one is going about as well as the Eldred case did. Stanford has an overview of the case.
In regard to copyrights what Google's cache is very similar. So is the Google cache next on the hit list?
but I looked over the ruling, and it said basically on all counts that the case was "dismissed with prejudice". Some of the rebuttals were of the form
1) Eldred vs. Ashcroft said this, so we can't overturn that, try to go to the Supreme Court.
2) People live longer now so copyrights should last longer (for kids and such)
3) Congress carefully considers the meaning of "promotes the progress of arts and science" every time they extend this
4) Technology increases the amount of time a given work is "valuable", (tell that to the RIAA, or anyone using an old version of Windows) and thus extending the copyright gives authors even more of an incentive to create.
My question though is that since all charges are "dismissed with prejudice" is there any grounds for an appeal?
Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
Congress, the cause, and solution, to our copyright woes...
Has any effort been made to request of congress the creation of a statutory "safe harbor" with respect to the use of material eligible for copyright protection but otherwise abandoned? Would it hurt Disney if the law included protection from liability for those who make a good faith effort to get permission but receive no response?
For that matter, if we really want to treat IP with the same rules as physical property, then should notions about adverse possession, abandonment, and eminent domain apply?
Trying to use sarcasm in text-based forums does not work.
Well at least everyone who is legal to vote in the US. Starting a little over a year from now, your local political parties will be holding meetings to determine their direction for the next election. Find out when and where they are, then show up. For the two major parties this is public knowledge posted well in advance. (third parties hold them too, but finding out when and where is more difficult)
Once you are there, start talking, but make it intelligent. Find out the format in advance each party is slightly different. Prepare some resolutions in advance.
Normally the format is someone starts by reading a prepared sentence ("Be it resolved that abortion shall be illegal"), and then the floor is open for debate. Immediately someone will jump in and say no, they disagree ("Abortion is a women's choice"). After a few minutes the chair stops discussion and calls for a vote: yes, no, abstain. (Note I specifically picked an example you are likely to hear when you go! Your resolution will not be near as controversial, so it won't get near as much debate)
At some point they then pick people to represent their local area in the state convention. Get picked! (this isn't hard, in many areas anyone who shows up gets a position if they want it, and then they pick alternates from those who couldn't make it that night but have gone to state in the past) At the state convention much the same happens, except the debates are larger.
Remember, present your resolutions as non-controversial, good ideas. Most people will not be informed, so they will abstain. Then when it gets to state the only people who care are those from /. who took my advice, and are on your side.
Now get your party elected.
The above is the grassroots processes. It is how everything is done politically in the US. The power is by following the above, forget the party boss, they are nothing compared to the millions of little guys working together to get something done.
Note that it does not matter much which party you pick. Neither major party has a monopoly on doing the right thing as far as copyrights (both have done the wrong thing countless times). Pick one you generally agree with, and fix the parts you don't. This works even better when some pick the republicans, and others the democrats. Then when congress meets in 2 years, there is strong grassroots bi-partisan support for your issue, so congress passes it so they can be reelected for doing something non-controversial.
Of course the above is ideal. In the real world reform can take years, and many will oppose you. Keep at it. Good luck.
Yes, but the entire pupose of copyright is to promote the arts and science by encouraging the discemenation of works. Originally you could not have a copyright on something if you did not publically publish it. Copyright like patents are intended to reward for letting the cat out of the bag so to say.
...to mention the Abandonware Petition.
It pretty well sums up what I believe about this sort of thing, and there have been several thousand people who pretty much agree with me.
And I'll take the opportunity once more to thank Teresa for putting it together and hosting it.
p
In Korea, long hair is for old people!
A few years ago, I installed MAME and a copy of the ROMs from a site and played it a bit for nostalgia's sake. (It's plain awful by non-1983 standards! :) Like a fool, I didn't keep a copy. The last time I looked (not very hard) I didn't find it because sites have gotten cautious about copyrights on old ROMs.
So, one of the few people that might care about those ROMs can't get a copy even though my initials are fourth down on the high-score list. All because of submarine IP that never really goes away unless the owner is absolutely completely gone or someone explicitly puts it into the public domain. (As I recall, in 1983 the laws were in flux as to copyright applying to ROMs at all.)
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Look, I want things to enter the public domain as much as the rest of you, but it looks like the copyright laws here made a decent amount of sense. Read the decision. Meanwhile, the lower courts are correctly noting that where the complaint directly conflicts with Eldred, they have to choice but to dismiss the complaint.
In a nutshell, current copyright policy looks like it was created to deal with an unmanageable system of registration, notification, and people who DID want to maintain their rights losing them. I find it interesting that we complain the US is isolationist and then reject this attempt to conform to world policy.
Finally, with regards to abandonware, the premise is that the original company is making no money off of it and "doesn't care" if it's distributed. If this is truly the case, then distribute it anyway, even if it is copyrighted. If they don't care, then no problem. If they do care, then take it down. The stuff that truly is abandoned will still be distributed, but the items that the copyright holders still have an interest in will not be.
The legal nuances only come into play if someone takes you to court, and if to reach that point generally means that not only do they significantly value the work, but you've most likely refused to resolve the situation amicably. Companies, even large ones, would much rather send a simple letter than sue someone.
I don't know what kind of crack I was on, but I suspect it was decaf.
I was involved in producing one of the first classic arcade collection for PC.
It was a NIGHTMARE!!!
Since many of the titles we were interested were produced by defunct companies, it was impossible to track down proper copyright owners to license the game. We were able to finally track down copyright owners for the titles we really wanted, but some of the titles had to be abandoned because we could not verify who had the proper copyright.
Even with identified copyright holders we had problems with other people challenging their ownership. Very, very confusing.
Again, if a copyright is valuable enough, then the owner should protect it and license it accordingly. But there are numerous copyrights that are hopelessly lost or disputed (where no one can prove clear ownership) that should become public domain by default.