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Music Industry Argues Works Entering Public Domain Are Not In Public Interest

An anonymous reader writes: With news that Canada intends to extend the term of copyright for sound recordings and performers, the recording industry is now pushing the change by arguing that works entering the public domain is not in the public interest. It is hard to see how anyone can credibly claim that works are "lost" to the public domain and that the public interest in not served by increased public access, but if anyone would make the claim, it would be the recording industry.

179 of 302 comments (clear)

  1. Something to see behind the curtain? by ravyne · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't know the details of what Canada is doing, but often when it comes to IP enforcement changes around the world, the United States IP lobbies are somewhere in the shadows. Doesn't take much arm-twisting, just a 'gentle' reminder that future trade negotiations will look unfavorably on those who don't uphold IP similarly to the US.

    1. Re:Something to see behind the curtain? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The current conservative canadian government is, like recent surges in conservative governments in western nations around the world, largely adherent to the US republican ideology of complete subservience to the vested elite.

    2. Re:Something to see behind the curtain? by s.petry · · Score: 2, Insightful

      While I agree with a portion of your statement I have to point out that there is no restriction to a "republican ideology". Democrats are on the same exact team.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    3. Re:Something to see behind the curtain? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yeah, yeah, yeah, rich people have all of the money, politics run on money and as a result politicians look to the wealthy for money

      It is really a matter of degree, nobody is wearing white, but do your prefer a nice share of antique white over darth-vader black?

      Look at Presidential elections, with Obama, a Dem, receiving the bulk of his donations from small donors, while the Koch bros are ready to back up the bus and dump a billion bucks into the pocket of "whatever republican" survives the idiot match they call their primaries. It is pretty damned obvious which party indebted to which group

    4. Re:Something to see behind the curtain? by jblues · · Score: 1

      Yeah, yeah, yeah, rich people have all of the money, politics run on money and as a result politicians look to the wealthy for money

      Apparently there's this concept called left-wing and right-wing politics. Left wing politics are funded by unions representing the working and middle classes. Conversely right-wing politics tends to be funded by businesses representing the wealthy elite. In some countries they even have a healthy debate between these interests and its called democracy.

      --
      If it acquires resources on instantiation like a duck, then its a shared_ptr<Duck>
    5. Re:Something to see behind the curtain? by RoccamOccam · · Score: 2
      From Politifact

      We cross-checked the Open Secrets list of the top 100 individuals donating to outside spending groups in the current election against the Forbes list of the world’s billionaires and found that, as of June 19, there were 22 individuals on the Open Secrets list who were billionaires. Of those 22 billionaires, 13 -- or more than half -- gave predominantly to liberal groups or groups affiliated with the Democratic Party. The other nine gave predominantly to conservative groups. (A list of billionaires and how much they donated can be found here.)

      ...

      The top donor from either party so far this cycle is pro-Democratic -- California billionaire Tom Steyer, who has given more than $11 million and has pledged to spend at last $50 million.

    6. Re:Something to see behind the curtain? by g0bshiTe · · Score: 1

      You say republican like there's another political group that doesn't want complete subservience to the vested elite.

      --
      I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
    7. Re:Something to see behind the curtain? by g0bshiTe · · Score: 1

      Do the math though, the Dems outspent the Reps though the R's had more representatives up for election last cycle.

      Of course facts have no bearing on the issue, it's about who spent more, not who spent more per representative.

      --
      I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
    8. Re:Something to see behind the curtain? by g0bshiTe · · Score: 1

      We should get some of that democracy stuff here in the states, it sounds pretty good.

      --
      I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
    9. Re: Something to see behind the curtain? by MickyTheIdiot · · Score: 1

      The difference between me and you is that I would like them *both* to go away. I am fine with Soros, Koch, unions, and any other group losing their massive money lobbyist operations as long as it means it brings power back to constituents and away from government by bid.

    10. Re:Something to see behind the curtain? by TwoEyedJack · · Score: 1

      Hell, just look at the Clintons and their plan to spend 2.5 BILLION to try to get Hillary elected... and where did all the money come from? Certainly not a bunch of poor or middle class voters sending in small sums of money... it came from the obscenely rich... money buys politicians... especially Democrat ones... Obama and Clinton are exhibits A & B in that case.

      Lots of it came from the Russians buying up our uranium mines, which Hillary and 7 other Obama cabinet members signed off on. After the appropriate "donations" to the Clinton foundation and paying Bill a cool half mil for a speech of course. I always knew the Clintons were grifters, but this is well beyond the pale.

    11. Re:Something to see behind the curtain? by jblues · · Score: 1

      We should get some of that democracy stuff here in the states, it sounds pretty good.

      I think what happened in good ole USA, if my memory of a Noam Chomsky essay serves me correctly, is that 'certain interests' managed to make out that workers unions were *terrible*, terrible things.

      So now while there may be parties claiming to represent left-side interests, all funding comes from the right.

      --
      If it acquires resources on instantiation like a duck, then its a shared_ptr<Duck>
  2. The needs of the many... by ItsJustAPseudonym · · Score: 2

    ...outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.
    --Mr. Spock

    i.e. The CRIA, or whatever they are now calling themselves, can get stuffed.

    1. Re:The needs of the many... by dbIII · · Score: 1

      But here the needs of the donor and/or lobbyist outweigh the needs of the many, so that the many get fucked over until they actually get some honest representation.

    2. Re:The needs of the many... by ItsJustAPseudonym · · Score: 1

      Ah, yes. That was Spock's quote in the "director's cut".

    3. Re:The needs of the many... by Maritz · · Score: 1

      ...outweigh the needs of the few, or the one. --Mr. Spock

      Yeah.

      The needs of lots of dollars, versus the needs of few dollars.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    4. Re:The needs of the many... by ItsJustAPseudonym · · Score: 1

      Maritz, FTW!

  3. Good by Trogre · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now can someone please publish the counter-argument, that Copyright is not in the Public Interest.

    Shall we compare them side by side?

    --
    "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
    1. Re:Good by Marginal+Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      OK, I'll play. Here's an example I happened to be thinking of recently. Consider the case of a film from the silent era, 1894–1929. On a common-sense basis, it clearly should be in the public domain. After all, the people who made it are all dead - as likely are their heirs. So, who really deserves any money from something created that long ago?

      However, if it's in the public domain, there is no monetary incentive to locate, digitize, and restore such a film. It either sits in a vault somewhere, decomposing (maybe even on nitrate film - egad!), or maybe it was transferred onto videotape before its copyright expired. So, it's either not available at all, or maybe isn't available in the best possible quality. But if somebody still owned a valid copyright for it, they might have a financial incentive to make it available in HD.

      Don't get me wrong, though - I don't think any film from the silent era should still be protected by copyright. But at least some case can be made for that. So there's your counter-argument.

    2. Re:Good by whoever57 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      However, if it's in the public domain, there is no monetary incentive to locate, digitize, and restore such a film. It either sits in a vault somewhere, decomposing (maybe even on nitrate film - egad!), or maybe it was transferred onto videotape before its copyright expired.

      Counter argument: if the copyright holder felt that there was money to be made by transferring to another medium and selling, it would have already happened.

      Instead, all those nitrate copies are locked away and will either burn or decompose. Many of those old movies have copies lurking away, open to non-copyright holders if they had the right to make updated copies and release them. But copyright prevents this.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    3. Re:Good by Marginal+Coward · · Score: 1

      FWIW, my story includes the element of the march of technological progress. Specifically, videotape such as VHS was once the best way to monetize an old film, but now HD or streaming - with much higher quality - might be. So, if copyright expires, there's no monetary incentive to transfer to the lastest-and-greatest technology, and to undertake the expensive process of digital restoration.

      Admittedly, my example is a bit contrived, but as someone who is mildly a silent film buff, I've been surprised that Netflix and Amazon Prime seem rather lacking in them, whereas they show up regularly on Turner Classic Movies, and they're also available on DVDs - for a price. Oh, and some are available fore free on YouTube but with poor quality. I don't know all the reasons for all that, but I suspect that it involves the fact that TCM owns the copyrights (or at least the best prints) and prefers to monetize them without the help of competing services.

    4. Re:Good by avandesande · · Score: 1

      I guess the case you are making for a film is special since digitizing and mastering is so expensive- but it doesn't hold true for music an books.

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    5. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I have from time to time, as I'm sure many here have, marked code I've written as "public domain" in the past. Not large works, but useful code nonetheless.
      I don't care to monitor the usage of said code, and it is there just to help fellow programmers solve specific problems. I have made use of such code from others on many occasions (stackoverflow!). Obviously, public domain is a huge benefit to many.

    6. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      However, if it's in the public domain, there is no monetary incentive to locate, digitize, and restore such a film. It either sits in a vault somewhere, decomposing (maybe even on nitrate film - egad!), or maybe it was transferred onto videotape before its copyright expired. So, it's either not available at all, or maybe isn't available in the best possible quality.

      This is why we have public repositories like the Library of Congress. It should be their mandate to preserve and make available works that have passed into the public domain. We also have museums and non-profit organizations that do similar things for movies.

      Basically, there are a number of entities that exist for the public good that would be more than happy to get their hands on works that have passed into the public domain, restore them and get them transferred to digital media so they can be enjoyed for many generations to come. Of course, these organizations require people to know about them (or to bother to use Google to find them) and help fund their efforts.

    7. Re:Good by BorisAmmerlaan · · Score: 1

      However, if it's in the public domain, there is no monetary incentive to locate, digitize, and restore such a film.

      If done right, there could be. The copyright on those particular prints has expired, but a decent (not necessarily excellent) restoration with (for example) some annotations could be eligible for copyright again.

    8. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You didn't address the counter argument though.

      If copyright gave an incentive to keep these works in circulation then they would not be presently rotting away anywhere, they would be widely available. But they aren't. So the existing lengthy copyright regime is currently is doing exactly the opposite of what you argued would happen.

    9. Re:Good by jordanjay29 · · Score: 1

      On the other hand, works in the public domain allow multiple interested parties to rescue old films to update their medium, rather than relying on the generosity of a copyright holder. If a copyright holder believes there is no money to be made, why would they invest the time in updating the medium? Whereas a non-copyright holder, yet an interested party, may have archival or just plain altruistic motives for doing so?

      It's also possible that the copyright holder does not have the financial means to update, publish, market and otherwise finance a restoration of the work, while another for-profit company might. While under copyright, such a company might simply buy a license, but there can be legal loopholes and financial obstacles in the way of this (such as if the copyright holder simply does not want to sell, or believes they deserve a higher cut than is reasonable). A public domain work has none of these problems. The only real issue would be getting hold of a copy of the film in good enough condition to work on and reproduce.

    10. Re:Good by spire3661 · · Score: 1

      Project Gutenberg says 'LOL'

      --
      Good-bye
    11. Re:Good by orasio · · Score: 2

      Very interesting point, in theory. Luckily, that kind of thing has been studied, and it=s the other way around. Copyrights hinder availability, and entering public domain is an incentive for publishing.
      Look at this, it was a study on Amazon availability of books : http://offsettingbehaviour.blogspot.co.nz/2012/03/copyright-stagnation.html.
      This shows that books seem to get republished as soon as they enter the public domain, and for a long time after that too.

    12. Re:Good by G-forze · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You didn't address the counter argument though.

      If copyright gave an incentive to keep these works in circulation then they would not be presently rotting away anywhere, they would be widely available. But they aren't. So the existing lengthy copyright regime is currently is doing exactly the opposite of what you argued would happen.

      Add to this, that if the movies were in public domain, *anyone* with an interest - monetary or otherwise - could do the digitization and restoration. This could be some other company, some silent movie buff society, or a museum or archive.

      --
      "There's someone in my head but it's not me." - Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon
    13. Re:Good by Bert64 · · Score: 1

      In your example there is only one house, once you sell it you no longer have the house and that applies equally to whoever originally built it as any subsequent purchaser.

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    14. Re:Good by dave420 · · Score: 1

      Nonsense. If it's in the public domain then anyone can find a reason to locate, digitize, restore, and monetize a film, as everyone has the right to do so. By stopping the film from being public domain we have to trust the sole rights holder has the desire, which clearly isn't always the case.

    15. Re:Good by gnasher719 · · Score: 1

      However, if it's in the public domain, there is no monetary incentive to locate, digitize, and restore such a film.

      There is monetary incentive if you can put the movie onto a shelf in the shops and sell it. Most people don't actually copy stuff. And those with huge illegal collections don't actually listen to or watch all the stuff that they copied. So you have to be careful estimating how many sales would be lost. And at last, you _can_ put DRM onto works in the public domain if you feel like it.

      On the other hand, if people are worried about cultural values being lost, and these people are not the copyright holders, then works being in the public domain is actually very helpful for society. Because these people _can_ restore movies without having one foot in jail.

    16. Re:Good by righteousness · · Score: 1

      IANAL, but if the film is in the public domain, and someone takes it and enhances it and makes it available in HD, wouldn't they then hold the copyright to the new enhanced HD version?

      --
      Don't fornicate. Seriously, just don't do it.
    17. Re:Good by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      OK, I'll play. Here's an example I happened to be thinking of recently. Consider the case of a film from the silent era, 1894–1929. On a common-sense basis, it clearly should be in the public domain. After all, the people who made it are all dead - as likely are their heirs. So, who really deserves any money from something created that long ago?

      However, if it's in the public domain, there is no monetary incentive to locate, digitize, and restore such a film. It either sits in a vault somewhere, decomposing (maybe even on nitrate film - egad!), or maybe it was transferred onto videotape before its copyright expired. So, it's either not available at all, or maybe isn't available in the best possible quality. But if somebody still owned a valid copyright for it, they might have a financial incentive to make it available in HD.

      Don't get me wrong, though - I don't think any film from the silent era should still be protected by copyright. But at least some case can be made for that. So there's your counter-argument.

      But what's to stop someone from taking those old films and digitising them and selling them on whatever medium they want. There will be no copyright so after costs it's all profit.

      --
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    18. Re:Good by Simulant · · Score: 1

      As if there's a significantly lucrative market for silent films these days.

      Freaking capitalists.... Because money is the only reason to do anything. You are like the religious people who believe that morality would not exist without god except that it's "incentive would not exist without monetary gain".

      What really happens is this: Whom ever owns the copyright sits on those films and does nothing because there is no monetary incentive. The film buff(s) who would donate their time to restore and archive the work are sued if when they try.

    19. Re:Good by Stuarticus · · Score: 1

      It was supposed to say Bob but the OCR was glitching again and no one proofread it. Based on my experiences of Gutenberg...

      --
      If you think someone isn't free to have a different definition of "freedom" you may be a tyrant.
    20. Re:Good by Marginal+Coward · · Score: 2

      I think a book is fundamentally different from a film in the technical sense that any available copy can be reproduced without loss of quality. That's why it doesn't matter that we lack the original manuscripts of the Bible or Shakespeare.

      In comparison, reproducing a film with the best possible quality would begin with locating the best possible print, then making it better via a restoration process. The ideal thing is the original camera negative or at least a master print. In the case of films from the silent era, the "best" print available often has short sections that are highly damaged but are still usable.

      I assume that the (former) copyright holder would have the best print in most cases, though there may be cases where a library or collector actually has the best print - in which case my argument doesn't apply.

      A while back, I watched a restored version of "Help!" from the 1960s that I got on DVD from my local library. It's not really a great film (even if you're a Beatles fan like me), but I was struck by how beautifully restored it was. I don't know how that would have ever happened if it weren't still under copyright.

    21. Re:Good by Catiline · · Score: 2

      I'm not entirely sure you're not trolling, but I'll bite anyway.

      The US Constitution states that the purpose of copyright is "to promote the progress of science and useful arts", artists and inventors may be granted a (temporary, limited) exclusive right to their work. Anytime copyright comes up among my group of friends (who include a large number of writers, musicians, and graphical artists, in addition to programmers) copyright is a fairly contentious issue. I tend to like to argue the position that any "common", mass produced work that is unavailable for public purchase for longer than one year has outlived its' salable value and should lose copyright protection. (This is particularly true in the age of digital distribution, where "shelf space" is a non-issue.) Fine art (where only one copy of the item ever gets created) clearly requires a different definition for copyright term, but for the things which usually are referenced in these debates online -- CDs, mass market books, newsclippings, etc. -- a strictly limited term is far more beneficial to keeping works available to the public.

    22. Re:Good by Marginal+Coward · · Score: 1

      I agree. My story is a bit of a special case. But the original poster had asked for a counter-example to his argument and I simply gave him one that I happened to be thinking about recently while reading a biography of Charlie Chaplin.

    23. Re:Good by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      Bad analogy. The builder doesn't get any money every time the house is sold. And if you go with a car analogy such as a car lease, it DOES lose value over time.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    24. Re:Good by Jason+Levine · · Score: 1

      Not to mention the legal morass we would have if we had perpetual copyrights. Take some random video game from the 80s and try to find out who owns it. For many games, it's impossible. The original company was bought, split up, shuffled around, went bankrupt, had its assets sold, etc. This is for a work that is only 30 years old. Imagine if Shakespeare's works were still copyrighted. You would need to dig through 400 years of legal proceedings just to find the owner of Romeo and Juliet so you could base a work off of it. Want to mix in some Midsummer Night's Dream? Another 400 years of legal proceedings to sort through since they might not have arrived at the same owner-destination. Perpetual copyright would be a huge legal nightmare.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    25. Re:Good by meta-monkey · · Score: 1

      And you can't just say "well, nobody knows who it is, so, meh, I'll go ahead and do it anyway." And then your Midsummer Night's Romeo's Dreams of Juliet gets insanely popular, makes $1 billion, and all of a sudden the original rights holders who couldn't be bothered with it before come out of the woodwork to "get their fair share."

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    26. Re:Good by orasio · · Score: 1

      Easy.
      You take an old copy from the public domain, invest time and money, make it beautiful, and republish it.
      Now, your work is copyrighted.

      Some other guy can take an old copy and make it beautiful, but not yours. That's protected by copyright. He would have to invest again. And then compete against you.

      So it's even better than in the case of books. With books, after they are in the public domain, it's a free for all, very low barriers to entry. With stuff that needs to be restored, it's even more lucrative for the republisher, because they get a new copyright, less competition.

      Also, note that this only covers the 70-90 years of undigitized stuff. Todays works won't need _that_ kind of work done to be republished.

    27. Re:Good by Marginal+Coward · · Score: 1

      Then why was I able to watch a series of Harold Lloyd silent comedies recently on TCM? They were even shown with some very nice small-orchestra scores that were added for the purpose of showing them on television. I think they may have been put into that form decades ago, so I'm not sure what their current copyright status is. But without the monetary incentive of copyright, at least when they were first prepped for television, I doubt that the Lloyd estate that owned them would have ever had the reason - or the money - to make them available to us, much less to augment them with some nice music.

    28. Re:Good by Miamicanes · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Actually, a restored copy (or even a digitized copy) would be a derived work. Derived works can be copyrighted independently of the foundation work, as long as some degree of artistic creativity was involved. If I digitally-restored an old film that was in the public domain, digitally-watermarked it, and you distributed unauthorized copies of it, I could most certainly sue you for infringement. I couldn't stop you from independently obtaining a copy of the original work and doing YOUR OWN restoration on it (and getting your own copyright), but I CAN stop you from using MY restored copy as your source.

      Here are some other examples:

      The original German text of Grimm's fairy tales: public domain

      A translation of them (with a few artistic liberties) published long ago: public domain.

      A new translation of them: the lines you changed are a derivative work & copyrighted. The lines that were unchanged from the original translation are public domain. The limits of how far someone could go republishing your translation with your own changes slightly paraphrased: anyone's guess, but likely to be messy.

      You print an anthology of public domain works. I OCR them, and typeset & sell my own anthology. You MIGHT have a valid (if weak) copyright claim if my book had a 1:1 correspondence with yours (every story in one was in the other, in the same order, but without any interpretations/footnotes/etc added by you), but the more my book diverges from yours in form and content, the weaker your claim would be.

      You print an anthology of public domain works. I scan each page, and use the images to publish my own anthology. You can absolutely sue me, because I violated the copyright on your "performance" of the original public-domain works.

      I record myself playing a Beethoven fugue. You copy and sell verbatim copies: I can sue. The content itself is public domain, but my specific recorded performance of it is not. The process of recording, mixing, and editing added copyrightable value. On the other hand, if I performed it in a public place & you made YOUR OWN recording, I'd probably have no valid claim against you. And I absolutely couldn't stop you from performing the public-domain work YOURSELF, recording it, and releasing it on your own.

    29. Re:Good by Agent0013 · · Score: 1

      And it is quite evident from the fan edit community that there are plenty of people who will spend a lot of time doing complete re-edits of movies if they are interested in them. I could very well imagine a silent movie fan doing a simple digitization and restoration and putting that out for other fans of the genre.

      --

      -- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
    30. Re:Good by dryeo · · Score: 1

      I believe Harold LLoyds stuff is still under copyright, partly due to the re-releases and his estate is protective of the copyright. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H...

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    31. Re:Good by Marginal+Coward · · Score: 1

      Interesting. I wasn't very familiar with the finer points of derived works, but what you say makes sense. Perhaps the Harold Lloyd films I saw had some new music added precisely to extend the copyright as derived works. If so, my interests as a consumer were served by that since I enjoyed both the films and the music.

    32. Re:Good by operagost · · Score: 1

      Yes, it would have. The restored version would be assigned a new copyright under most circumstances.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    33. Re:Good by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I think a book is fundamentally different from a film in the technical sense that any available copy can be reproduced without loss of quality. That's why it doesn't matter that we lack the original manuscripts of the Bible or Shakespeare.

      Are you ignorant, or trolling? It's hugely important that we lack the original manuscripts of the bible.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    34. Re:Good by Marginal+Coward · · Score: 1

      In my case, I hardly notice the difference between three bulbs and two.

      Neither. You take me too literally. Here's a New Revised Standard Version of my sentence for the literal minded among you who have had one drinkypoo too many:

      That's why it doesn't matter [for the purposes of this discussion, not for purposes of religious, historical, or literary study] that we lack the original manuscripts of the Bible or Shakespeare.

      Specifically, the printed word is more-or-less digital in the sense that any faithful copy has the same information content as the original. (Note for the literal minded: yes, mistakes can be made in the process, resulting in a loss of information.) Compare that with film, where each generation of copy suffers a loss of detail.

    35. Re:Good by sjames · · Score: 1

      A better approach is to make the copyright holder a legal steward of the work until it enters the public domain. That is, they have a legal duty to maintain it in the best possible form and make sure it gets handed off to interested parties when it enters the public domain. Failure to do so is a breech of the contract resulting in handing all profits from the work during copyright to the public (that is, a massive fine).

      If the cost of maintaining the work exceeds the value, they may choose to terminate the copyright early, but must give sufficient public notice.

    36. Re:Good by oldmac31310 · · Score: 1

      Last time I looked there were a lot of silent films at internetarchive.org

      --
      http://www.acetonestudio.com
    37. Re:Good by oldmac31310 · · Score: 1

      Did they have the 'Hooray for Harold Lloyd' theme music? If so, they have been around in that form for at least 35 years as I used to watch them when I was a teenager.

      --
      http://www.acetonestudio.com
    38. Re:Good by Marginal+Coward · · Score: 1

      I'm not familiar with the 'Hooray for Harold Lloyd' theme music, but the ones I saw had music by Robert Israel, which according to the Harold Lloyd page on Wikipedia was added for the new cable television and home video versions of Lloyd's feature films starting in 2002.

      I first watched Harold Lloyd and several other great silent comedians as a kid when we used to get 8mm films from our local library, which we could show on our home projector. Of course, that was before there was any form of home video. The fact that the films were silent dovetailed nicely with the fact that the common 8mm home movie format at the time was also silent. I think they were actually released by Blackhawk Films.

      These young kids nowadays don't know how much they're missing with those newfangled talkies they watch on YouTube. (Of course, silent films are there also but they probably wouldn't bother to watch 'em...)

    39. Re:Good by American+Patent+Guy · · Score: 2

      "Perhaps the Harold Lloyd films I saw had some new music added precisely to extend the copyright as derived works"

      Adding something to an existing work doesn't extend a copyright: whatever copyrights already existed continue unchanged. Rather, new copyrights are created when the new work is, provided that the new work is a "work of authorship". All works are derived, because all of us rely upon historical material of the past. Conceptually just saying "ABC" is deriving content from the alphabet, but in such a case there is a work but no substantial authoritative content to hang copyrights on. Incorporating letters, words, colors, sounds, and anything else that existed before is a derivation of that content; the author must add something additional in the class of authorship to develop his claim to copyright protection.

      I think Miamicanes got it mostly right, except that I would emphasize that transforming or changing a work in an automated, random, unintelligent or specification-conforming way is not "authorship", and would not render the product copyrightable. If you passed one of Shakespeare's works through Google translate to produce something in French or modern English, that effort would arguably not create a copyright because there would be no authorship. (The software running the translation is copyrighted, but not the product of the execution of that copyrighted software.) We can argue about whether or not such works are valuable, but that value must be created by something other than through copyrights.

    40. Re:Good by American+Patent+Guy · · Score: 1

      No, those works would be merely transformative in nature, and would not be copyright-eligible.

    41. Re:Good by Marginal+Coward · · Score: 1

      Thanks, that's a good tip that I didn't know about. The few that I've looked at on YouTube don't seem to be very good quality, but maybe the ones you pointed out are better.

    42. Re:Good by dryeo · · Score: 1

      And the original copyright (in English type law systems), specifically said that copyright was to advance learning by allowing copyright for a limited time (14+14 years with a 20 yr grandfather clause).
      Even back then in 1702 the publishers were pushing for unlimited copyright "for the authours" while buying all rights cheap and the elected part of government was willing to go along with them.
      Unluckily in the UK and Canada copyright is not a Constitutional matter so Parliament can pass whatever copyright laws they please, which is why in the UK the King James Bible and Peter Pan are copyrighted forever. At least in the case of Peter Pan the proceeds fund a childrens hospital. In Canada our current government uses copyright to be secretive and not publish tax payer funded studies that are embarrassing.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    43. Re:Good by Marginal+Coward · · Score: 1

      Presumably, the music might have been used to create an album rather than added to the film. If so, the album could be copyrighted. Why, then, couldn't the combined work be copyrighted?

      That's not to say that doing so changed the status of the original version without the new music. Instead, they seemed to have created a derived work with enough original content to be newly copyrighted.

      Then again, IANAL, so maybe I've got some part of that wrong.

    44. Re:Good by American+Patent+Guy · · Score: 1

      Why, then, couldn't the combined work be copyrighted?

      Because merely attaching one work to another is probably not a "work of authorship" under the copyright statutes. Originality is only one part of that. If there were something unique or artistic about the combination, then perhaps...

    45. Re:Good by oldmac31310 · · Score: 1

      I grew up in Ireland. The skinflint, poorly funded national television station, RTE, would (it seemed) gather any and every form of viewing content to fill the daily programme schedule. So - a lot of public domain stuff was shown. Can't say it was necessarily a bad thing. Lots of Harold Lloyd, Laurel and Hardy, early Popeye, Keystone Cops - probably anything they only had to pay a nominal handling fee for. The downside was a lot of horrible Czech and Polish animation that defied a young child's willingness to be amused. I found some of this animation recently (out of idle curiosity) and it is still as bad now as it was then! So, free is not always a good thing...

      --
      http://www.acetonestudio.com
  4. Re:Because the public must PAY! by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 4, Insightful

    each time I read about the recording industry pulling another fast one, it only encourages me to be bolder and download even MORE 'content'.

    I now refuse to buy movies or music. and I can well afford it, but I simply refuse. because I can - the same reason they keep breaking their promises and agreements with us, the consumers.

    they can, and we can. they don't care, so why should we?

    just give up buying and paying. the bastards are just not worth supporting. too bad about the artists, but they never got all that much, anyway; its the rare performer that really gets rich. most are stiffed by the industry.

    seriously - why should anyone follow laws when the big guys always ALWAYS get off scot-free and break rules without the slightest bit of care?

    --

    --
    "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  5. I'll be Bach by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Look how bad things went with Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven works. Shouldda let Disney own their notes.

    1. Re:I'll be Bach by Marginal+Coward · · Score: 1

      Yeah, poor Mozart was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave. Roll forward a hundred-plus years, though, and Gershwin's got himself a pretty nice place.

    2. Re:I'll be Bach by NostalgiaForInfinity · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yeah, poor Mozart was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave

      Mozart was buried as a regular citizen. His grave was reused after a decade because that was the custom for all citizens; that wasn't an indication of poverty. The idea that he was buried in a "pauper's grave" is false.

      Mozart's financial difficulties weren't a result of lack of income, but because he spent too much and wasn't prudent with money. He actually made a good amount of money from his works and his performances.

    3. Re:I'll be Bach by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      What an ugly building. I wouldn't be caught dead there.

    4. Re:I'll be Bach by Jesus_666 · · Score: 1

      I'm imagining how things would go if a widely-sampled piece like Pachelbel's Canon in D was covered by copyright. The labels would be buried under willful infringement suits over more money than the entire entertainment industry is worth. While it would be amusing to see BMG sentenced to pay someone a hundred billion Dollars I'm not certain it would be in anybody's interest.

      --
      USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
    5. Re:I'll be Bach by dabadab · · Score: 1

      You do realize that Beethoven was one of the pioneers of the copyright-based music publishing? (Of course in his time it was sheet music and not recordings.)

      --
      Real life is overrated.
    6. Re:I'll be Bach by Carewolf · · Score: 1

      regular citizens and paupers were pretty much the same.

      No. A citizen was lower upper class.

    7. Re:I'll be Bach by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 1

      You do realize that Beethoven was one of the pioneers of the copyright-based music publishing? (Of course in his time it was sheet music and not recordings.)

      "Pioneer"?? Huh?

      You do realize that music copyright privileges existed ever since Petrucci started serious music publishing around the year 1500? (About 300 years before Beethoven published most of his works...)

  6. Re:Nobody cares about public interest by Trogre · · Score: 1

    Not quite sure what you mean there. Do you mean removing the Wikipedia links from the maps, or something else?

    --
    "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
  7. Protect the income of the creators or they can't.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...create anything. Just 'cos the 'net makes it easy to copy and distribute creative works does not make it OK. People who just don't want to pay for stuff should admit it instead of pretending they have some kind of real philosophy or that is is for the creators' good (I mean, it might be, but it should be up to them to decide, not some guy in a basement who really just wants free stuff). The problem is the middle level. I want creators to get well paid and consumers to get well priced access. That does not need a record company, say, in the traditional sense.

    Copyright needs to (I reckon) end with the death of the creator; simple. And the creator has to be a human not a corporation. Probably legally difficult, but makes sense to me. I guess we need ways for copyright to be signed over to a corporation; or do we? Leased instead, until the 'death' of either party or until some agreed time prior. That way a corp can 'own' the copyright but only till the creator dies or the contract is up, whichever comes first.

    This argument I keep hearing that free distribution of, for example, music benefits the musician because they 'make more money in live shows anyway' is moronic in the extreme. Like every musician has the same business model? Sure, for some it might work that way: http://gizmodo.com/5903937/six-reasons-why-recorded-music-should-be-free but not everybody can keep touring. They get older -- do they suddenly lose the right to make any money off their life's work because they can't tour behind it? Musician thinks: "Gee, I've got kids, a wife who works, I can't spend 10 months a year on the road like when I was 25 -- and double whammy, I don't get royalties either 'cos apparently I 'benefit' from all the exposure I get from my music being free." One size never fits all and ideology is often a cover for greed.

    Ideally, creators get to say what happens. That's bound to encourage people to create. They can release their songs into the wild if they want, or not. But it's not up to 'us' to decide.

  8. Who is public here? by no-body · · Score: 1

    S/he who has the money and can't get enough of it and then after dying to pass his/her legacy on to their offspring to continue to live on there - all a great mind game,
    Reality is different..
    Mostly it seems to be "he's" doing this kind of game.

  9. Re:Nobody cares about public interest by NotInHere · · Score: 1

    This is a "new google maps is shit" troll, one of a series. This time they even constructed a link to the story.

  10. Get inside their heads by dbIII · · Score: 1

    It is hard to see how anyone can credibly claim that works are "lost" to the public domain

    Because some rent seeker can no longer make money from a work produced by someone else it is "lost" to a world that sees things in only monetary value.

    1. Re:Get inside their heads by khallow · · Score: 1

      Even in a world of strictly monetary values, very few own copyrights that held their value so long after creation. It's not everyone's monetary value that's being preserved, but rather that of a few. Limited duration IP has value even in the world of pure monetary value.

      That's the power of a good ethics system. That it holds even with widely divergent moral viewpoints.

  11. Re:Because the public must PAY! by Tokolosh · · Score: 2

    Indeed. I treat any copyright over 14 years as a "taking", and take my own corrective action.

    --
    Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
  12. The reasoning is simple. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    By retaining copyrights, the recording industry can limit availability to older works. By limiting availability, they can drive consumer interest perpetually towards newer works. This ensures that there is consistent demand for new music from new artists, which further ensures that new music is continually created, which is good for everyone.

    The fact that most of this new music is just rehashed variants of the old music which is no longer on the shelves is irrelevant. The fact that the money going to new artists, in this scenario, represents money that is NOT going to old artists that are still alive, is also irrelevant. The fact that the limits on availability often results in the permanent loss of important cultural artifacts is also irrelevant. The fact that people want the old music is also not relevant. And, lastly, the fact that all of this drives people to illegal file sharing networks is the least relevant bit of all.

    1. Re:The reasoning is simple. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Different AC here:

      Music is not fungible. You cannot trade two Justin Bieber CDs for a Beatles album. You cannot trade a Ke$ha MP3 group for Dark Side of the Moon. Music that is popular is not by signed bands; it is by bands that are built from scratch by the labels with a squad of psychologists and marketing types writing every line of a sing, then hiring good looking musicians who can follow in lock-step, sing, and obey orders.

      The problem is that the music industry is killing itself. Yes, it can squeeze out more from each band it promos... but between streaming, piracy, existing music collections, and many other sources, people are starting to go elsewhere for their music fix... and discovering bands that were footnotes in musical history before. In fact, the entire hipster craze was about finding bands like Neutral Milk Hotel and feeling superior because they know an esoteric band.

      The ironic thing is that I was wondering when there would be news about the industry and its tactics.

      Of course, there is one thing that will turn things around:

      Between jailbreak-proof devices and consoles with a 0% piracy rate, it shows that when there is no piracy, costs shoot up. Back in the Apple 2 days, we were constantly chided for piracy and how software costs would be insanely cheap once piracy was stopped... however, look at consoles now... what used to be a $50-60 game is now a multiple C-note game just to download the DLC pieces which were normally included with the game in the first place.

      So, if there is some law passed mandating DRM stacks, we can see that happening with music as well. Streaming services will go the way of the dodo, and we will be paying $20-$25 per album again... albums with limited plays and locked to the MP3 player or computer, just as in the days of OpenMG and ATRAC3/LiquidAudio devices.

    2. Re:The reasoning is simple. by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      A lot of the new stuff, like a lot of the old stuff, is garbage (Sturgeon's Law - 90% of everything is crap). Then again, meet the new boss - same as the old boss. Oh, and Blame CANADA!

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    3. Re:The reasoning is simple. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      By retaining copyrights, the recording industry can limit availability to older works. By limiting availability, they can drive consumer interest perpetually towards newer works.

      Huh. Then why is the fashion industry, which has no copyright protection, the most prolific of all creative industries? They manage to constantly drive consumer interest to their new works without ever locking down access to the old stuff.

      I can buy a Vera Wang dress and then legally make and sell exact copies of that dress, minus any trademarks. I can't call it a Vera Wang or leverage her brand name in my advertising, but I can copy the product itself. Discount clothes manufactures do exactly this. Some of them even pay the high-end fashion houses for advance access to next seasons designs.

      Somehow, the world keeps turning, and both parties are making money without copyright.

  13. Re:Protect the income of the creators or they can' by Tokolosh · · Score: 1, Insightful

    If it were not for copyright, Disney would not have to rehash the same shit over and over, but would be forced into some creativity. Star Wars, anyone?

    --
    Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
  14. Public Domain == Public Interest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It's absurd of them to claim that the public claiming its rightful property after the agreed upon term is up is not in the "public" interest. It's quite transparent which interests they're worried about and those aren't ours.

    These are just giant music conglomorates who want to prevent the public from realizing a more robust public domain, as they would then have to compete with the best works of past generations, rather than just the pablum of today.

  15. Definition of public by Livius · · Score: 1

    By 'public interest', they're referring to their own bank accounts.

    The notion that anything else could have value doesn't even occur to them.

    And their message isn't for us, it's for politicians who already agree with them.

  16. nice argument, considering the ridiculous proposit by raymorris · · Score: 1

    Considering how ridiculous the notion is that copyright should last approximately forever, you came up with a pretty good argument. Not a PERSUASIVE argument, of course, but pretty good. Reminds of OJ Simpson's lawyers - there was a ton of evidence against him, so anyone who felt like taking the time to learn about the evidence knew he was guilty; yet his lawyers made arguments good enough to sway some jurors.

  17. Oh Really? by maz2331 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Is there any work that is over 50 years old that still brings in big money? The proper solution is to charge an annual fee per work for continued protection of, say $1000/year after 50 years. I'll bet they won't want to pay that.

    1. Re:Oh Really? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Is there any work that is over 50 years old that still brings in big money?

      Come on, you really can't think of any music from the 1950's and '60s that's still bringing in money? Who was that truckdriver from Tennessee with the swivel hips and pouty lips? I think his catalog still makes a bit of money and just about all of his biggest hits were more than 50 years ago. When the Etta James hit "At Last" is used in a Mercedes commercial, or in a popular movie, cash registers are ringing for somebody, but certainly not for anyone who had anything to do with making the music.

      The first handful of Beatle albums were more than 50 years ago. Hell, Miles Davis' Kind of Blue still sells pretty steady and that was what, 1959?

      The most egregious part of this entire saga is how works that were already in the public domain - movies, music, books - are being removed from public domain. This is why you're seeing so many great old movies removed from Netflix. It's shameful and it's hurting both future generations and the current state of the art.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    2. Re:Oh Really? by currently_awake · · Score: 1

      And as an added bonus, it's probably cheaper (to the record company) than paying off congress critters to extend copyright over and over. At least some stuff would enter the public domain. No reason to wait 50 years though, most money is made in the first five.

    3. Re:Oh Really? by Sooner+Boomer · · Score: 1

      Is there any work that is over 50 years old that still brings in big money?

       

      At least one: Mickey Mouse. He's on everything from T-shirts to books, films, etc., and Disney guards their IP like a tiger guarding her cubs. He is one reason American copyright is so long.

      --
      Chaos maximizes locally around me.
    4. Re:Oh Really? by NoKaOi · · Score: 1

      Is there any work that is over 50 years old that still brings in big money? The proper solution is to charge an annual fee per work for continued protection of, say $1000/year after 50 years. I'll bet they won't want to pay that.

      So what if they're still making money? The idea of copyright term was never to ensure that anybody would profit from them forever. It is to incentivize creators into creating, to help them make some money to making creating worthwhile. Do you think copyright terms extending beyond 50 years would have had any effect on the decisions of people 50 years ago as to whether or not creating something was worth their time? I'm sure Elvis would have thought, "Gee, copyright terms are only 50 years? Never mind, I'm not going to write or perform these songs, sorry guys."

    5. Re:Oh Really? by Derling+Whirvish · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Quoted from here: http://www.michaelgeist.ca/201...

      Earlier this year, a Canadian company called Stargrove Entertainment began selling two Beatles records featuring performances that are in the public domain in Canada. The records were far cheaper than those sold through Universal Music and were picked up by retail giant Walmart, who continues to list the records on their website (Can’t Buy Me Love, Love Me Do). There were additional titles featuring the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and the Beach Boys. Some of the titles are still available for sale through Walmart.

      The Stargrove Entertainment records provided Canadian consumers with low-priced alternatives while still ensures that the authors of the songs received the approriate royalties. While the sound recording is in the public domain for these works, the song itself remains subject to copyright. Therefore, the song writers – Lennon and McCartney in the case of the Beatles – were still paid for every record sold. The difference is that Universal Records was not profiting from the sale. Instead, a small Canadian company was succeeding in selling the records at a lower price to Canadian consumers.

    6. Re:Oh Really? by turp182 · · Score: 1

      Almost all of the best music ever is about 50 years old (The Who, Rolling Stones early stuff, Led Zeppelin, Beatles, etc.). I would even include the Beach Boys (Good Vibrations, 1964, 51 years old, I've listened to it twice in the last week, God Only Knows was 1966, 49 years old)...

      Everything done in the mid-1960's and prior is 50 or older. The best time for music ever to me was 1965-1975. And 1965 was 50 years ago.

      There is a metric shit-ton of money being made off this stuff.

      --
      BlameBillCosby.com
    7. Re:Oh Really? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      The Stargrove Entertainment records provided Canadian consumers with low-priced alternatives while still ensures that the authors of the songs received the approriate royalties.

      There is absolutely no reason an artist should receive royalties from works that are more than 50 years old.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    8. Re:Oh Really? by careysub · · Score: 1

      Is there any work that is over 50 years old that still brings in big money? The proper solution is to charge an annual fee per work for continued protection of, say $1000/year after 50 years. I'll bet they won't want to pay that.

      It is amazing how you have totally bought into the corporations most ardent desire: continual "ownership" of other people's work as if it was some inalienable right.

      Copyright was invented as a limited term privilege to encourage artistic creation as a social good.

      The proper solution is to revert to the original 28 year maximum duration and place all artistic works in the public domain after that time.

      --
      Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
    9. Re:Oh Really? by T.E.D. · · Score: 1

      That's a good point. The Beatles broke up in 1969. Thus their entire catalog will soon be more than 50. The first 2 Led Zeppelin albums were released in '69 too. (and to bring things back full-circle, 3 songs off that first album were covers of PD works. It was essentially a delta blues album with heavy rock instrumentation).

    10. Re:Oh Really? by kimvette · · Score: 1

      Pink Floyd's first studio album is close to 50 years old. Bootlegs of their early gigs are often included in unauthorized box sets and some of them are now 50 years old. Yes, many old recordings are still bringing in buttloads of revenue.

      --
      The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
    11. Re:Oh Really? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Because an arbitrary number can be objective

      Can you believe someone wrote that and thought it was a smart comeback?

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  18. Lying stealing thugs by TheRecklessWanderer · · Score: 1

    Well we know that the music industry is not a bunch of lying stealing thugs, just look at how they treat musicians. So we have no choice but to believe whatever self serving garbage they serve up as legitimate information.

    --
    Mean what you say...say what you mean.
  19. Copypriveledge The Right To Steal Copies by rtb61 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    How about the core of the problem. Copyright is an artificial construct, people want to make stuff, sell it and keep it, the ultimate have your cake and eat falsity. We owe you nothing, not one thing for making it, you make it's your choice. What you do with it is your choice. Keep it secret, destroy it, release it, make a hard copy and stick it up your arse, all your choice. Nothing what so ever to do with the rest of us, not our choice and most definitely not our responsibility, you made it your choice, so don't want to released, keep it secret, nothing what so ever to do with the rest of us. So why the bullshit of forcing us to protect it like we own it, we don't it yours, do with it what you will.

    The reality of copyright kind of stops there, sure the token thing of ensuring a person who didn't create it can not claim they did but it pretty much stops there. Now you release it, your problem, nothing to do with the rest of us. People copy it with their equipment and their materials, again nothing to do with the rest of us, as such, so what. For the famous car analogy, you make a self replicating car and complain when people us it to make copies and for some reason expect the rest of us to stop them, even when they supply all the equipment and hardware to make those copies.

    Now taking that into account, do you understand why copyright was meant to be limited. OK we will humour you and give you limited protection, like a decade. Then the creative artists cease to be the concerned parties and publishers take over and not one scrap of creativity in them and demand that we enable them to basically print money and pretend it's real because they have enough money to corrupt government. So copyright a token limited right, whoops, privilege not a right at all, as you are attempt to claim ownership of something someone else produced, something some one else paid for and some things some one else has a right to, the copy.

    So copyprivilege is the legal illusion of allowing some to steal other peoples copies that they have created and not only steal those copies but make them pay for creating them after they already paid to create them. That copy is actual property, it used actual materials and equipment and those people who made it paid to make it have a right to it. So seriously what gives anyone the right mind you the 'RIGHT' to steal it. Yes copyright is theft, the right to steal copies legally made by others (they were made with legally owned material, labour and equipment) and pretend they were not legally made because, hmm, 'GREED'. That is the only reason in the majority of instances, as that content in the majority of instance has no public value and in fact quite a large portion of it is damaging too society and in reality as such is of negative value to society.

    --
    Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    1. Re:Copypriveledge The Right To Steal Copies by aaaaaaargh! · · Score: 2

      Copyright could easily be adjusted to be beneficial to society. Limit it to twenty years, make it non-transferable and nullify any contracts that bind the exclusive marketing of copyrightable material to one company. That would allow the copyright holder to (i) make some money from his works for some time, and (ii) would get limit the power of the publishing industry in a way that is beneficial to the artists. The publisher could still market and sell the works and pay only lousy percentages, but at least you could change to another publisher at any time.

      Right now, the problem are the publishers (and Amazon's POD, regarding books). They make most of the money and use their existing grip of death on the market to coerce artists into their scheme. For example, young authors are warned from the start that if they just publish one book by their own publishing company (as opposed to POD, which is accepted because everybody wants a piece of that cake), they will be burned forever and never can have a book published at a larger publishing house. Or take record labels who make artists sign so-called 360 contracts.

      The English/US market is huge but don't forget that in many if not most countries even fairly successful writers and musicians can barely make a living - the markets are simply not big enough. So if you want to read books and listen to music produced by independently thinking individuals and not just marketing/advertising companies, you should not to abolish copyright but modify it to empower the actual artists.

    2. Re:Copypriveledge The Right To Steal Copies by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      That still does not answer the question of measuring the value or harm of the content and whether it is worth protecting at public expense, nor paying the cost of that fair and reasonable test. Copyprivilege should not be automatic but must pass a public test and pay the cost of that test, to ensure that the cost to society of that artificial unjust protection is measured as being of true value to that society.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  20. You got it all backwards ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 5, Insightful

    First, file sharing networks is THE goddam most relevant bit of all. THAT's what all this is about. The digitization of IP blew up the revenue stream, and it will continue to do so.

    What happened is, all IP looks the same in binary form. That means the tools that manipulate one, manipulates all.

    You have those tools. I have those tools. The government has those tools. The IP industries have those tools. Every country on the planet has those tools.

    Essentially overnight, IP is in the public domain, not by law, but by lack of friction. Digital IP is slicker'n mockingbird shit on a sycamore limb. To rephrase for Texans: It's slicker'n deer guts on a door knob.

    File sharing networks have no problem dragging copies from here to there, to everywhere.

    That's all we need to know. This is not your father's IP world.

    The entertainment business has been making way too much for way too long. Those days are over and there's no going back.

    What we're hearing from IP interests is their last breaths.

    People are going to have to produce entertainment for time and material and a realistic margin of profit.

    It will be good.

    People will be producing IP because, by golly, by gum, it's fun.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    1. Re:You got it all backwards ... by tlhIngan · · Score: 2

      The entertainment business has been making way too much for way too long. Those days are over and there's no going back.

      What we're hearing from IP interests is their last breaths.

      People are going to have to produce entertainment for time and material and a realistic margin of profit.

      It will be good.

      People will be producing IP because, by golly, by gum, it's fun.

      You're right, it's going to be good.

      Because it means I can release a Linux based device without following the GPL anymore since that's bound to "IP Protections" which no longer exist. I mean, without IP protections, the GPL is meaningless because the GPL requires IP protections in order to operate.

      If you don't get how it works - the GPL gives you rights that you otherwise won't have under IP laws. You have a choice - obey existing IP laws which restrict what you can do with the GPL'd software, or obey the GPL to get the enhanced rights it offers. But without IP protections, you can do anything with GPL'd software without needing to agree to the GPL.

      It would be wonderful - no more GPL lawsuits, no more having to read the pesky open source license - just take and give away the binaries.

      And yes, you CAN pirate open-source software, since the right to derive and distribute comes from the license itself - IP laws do not give you those rights, so if you do not want to obey the license, you are pirating (copyright infringement).

      Oh, how glorious it is when one need not distribute their source code anymore! And even better, people will write the code for you, for free to take!

    2. Re:You got it all backwards ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Believe it or not, if it comes to that the makers of GPL will be happy!

      Free Software may not mean gratis. It means freedom FOR THE USERS. GPL is just a license in order to protect Free Software from being usurped by proprietary non-free vendors, while enjoying similar protections.

      If you buy something that cannot be inspected, tweaked and improved, your paying for your own jail.

      So your idea has been proposed by proponents of FSF and GPL, e.g. RMS, in order to make people free to do whatever they want with any code.

    3. Re:You got it all backwards ... by r_a_trip · · Score: 1

      You forget one thing. If copyright protection is dead, then it doesn't matter if you only distribute binaries.

      Take as much visible source as you like. Put it in binaries with your own "secret" sauce. People who want human readable source will decompile your binaries (even obfuscated ones) and extract any valuable bits you came up with. With impunity.

      It works both ways. Either you have protections or no one has. Don't try to hide behind contract law. One leaked copy and one breach of contract later, everyone who wasn't a party to the contract can do whatever they want.

      --
      # touch universe # chmod +rwx universe # ./universe
    4. Re:You got it all backwards ... by Jason+Levine · · Score: 1

      But if the GPL lacked any enforcement mechanisms, a closed source vendor could take GPL software, incorporate it into their product (perhaps making improvements or linking to proprietary code) without giving back to the community. If IP laws went away tomorrow and Adobe incorporated the exact code that GIMP used for a feature without even crediting the authors, there would be nothing you could do to stop them. Without IP laws, big companies would just hide the IP they "used to own" behind systems to keep people from having anything but the most transitory of copies. They would buy up or simply steal outright whatever they wanted from the little guy.

      The better solution isn't no IP laws at all, but a sane copyright length. It shouldn't be 50 years or 70 years. It should be 14 years plus an optional, one-time 14 year renewal (that you would need to opt into for a nominal fee). Alternatively, allow companies to renew their works indefinitely but put an increasingly higher price tag on the renewal. e.g. 10 year Registration is free. First 10 year renewal costs $10. Second 10 year renewal costs $100. Third 10 year renewal costs $1,000. Disney could renew the original Star Wars movie's copyright by paying $10,000 (fourth renewal) while other, less profitable, movies wouldn't be worth that renewal fee and would go into the Public Domain.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    5. Re:You got it all backwards ... by meta-monkey · · Score: 1

      While that's true, that's way harder. One of the goals of Free Software is the user be free to inspect and modify the code running on their hardware. Having only binaries that you can legally decompile doesn't really jive with the spirit there. It'd be like submitting a FOIA request and getting the government data back written in alternate lines of Sanskrit, Aramaic, and Klingon. Can you translate it? Yes. But that's not really in keeping with the spirit of the law.

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    6. Re:You got it all backwards ... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      RMS himself has said that he would only be okay with getting rid of copyright (and hence the basis on which GPL and its copyleft protection stands), if copyleft itself is written into law - i.e. if redistributing binaries without access to the code becomes illegal.

  21. Re:Because the public must PAY! by currently_awake · · Score: 2

    I think pushing government to start collecting property tax on the trillions of dollars in untaxed intelectual property would work better. Tax on real estate covers schools and stuff, tax on IP would cover copyright enforcement expenses. The record companies only need to remember the politicians for the renewals, an IP property tax would pay forever.

  22. 21 years... by sldunn · · Score: 1

    On one hand, Copyright is important for artists to be able to get paid for their work...
    But on the other hand the copyright period in most countries are beyond crazy.
    Ideally, I'd love to see 7 years without registration, extended to 14 if registered, and can be extended once to 21 years.
    I can 100% guarantee you, there isn't any literature, music, or movie executive that will green-light a project if they don't feel that it will make money within the first year. And I can understand giving a few years, to allow artists to make derivative works, or prevent it being short enough so people just want to run out the clock.
    But things like life + 50 years is just bananas. Copyright should be for a *limited* period of time. If a person can be born and live out their life without a work entering into the public domain, it's not a limited period of time.

  23. Would you kindly cut out the political crap? by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you still have any respect for this forum within Slashdot, would you kindly cut out your political crap, please?

    As this is a thread discussing the action of GREEDY ASSHOLES of the Music Industry, can you please stick to the context?

    Subservience to the vested elite is not limited to the Conservatives - the critters on the other side of the isle, the Liberals, have also proven to be doing the same thing

    It is thus an utter disgust for you kind to pollute this conversation by astroturfing the 'conservative vs liberal' debate

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
    1. Re:Would you kindly cut out the political crap? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Canada does not yet have a two party system. Please stop with your CRAP talking points.

      It is entirely relevant who is in power with regards to these kind of LEGISLATIVE changes.

    2. Re:Would you kindly cut out the political crap? by jblues · · Score: 3, Insightful

      In psychology, cognitive dissonance is the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

      This is making me uncomfortable. Until now I thought cognitive dissonance was something entirely contradictory.

      --
      If it acquires resources on instantiation like a duck, then its a shared_ptr<Duck>
    3. Re:Would you kindly cut out the political crap? by cob666 · · Score: 4, Informative

      If you still have any respect for this forum within Slashdot, would you kindly cut out your political crap, please?

      As this is a thread discussing the action of GREEDY ASSHOLES of the Music Industry, can you please stick to the context?

      Subservience to the vested elite is not limited to the Conservatives - the critters on the other side of the isle, the Liberals, have also proven to be doing the same thing

      It is thus an utter disgust for you kind to pollute this conversation by astroturfing the 'conservative vs liberal' debate

      Extending copyright is a legislative action which means it has to be enacted by politicians. Those 'GREEDY ASSHOLES' you refer to would not be able to get away with their heavy handed tactics if they didn't have political clout through lobbying and campaign finance.

      --
      Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law - Aleister Crowley
    4. Re:Would you kindly cut out the political crap? by jsepeta · · Score: 1

      politics are an important part of the environment but you're correct: attempts to boil this debate down to conservative vs liberal is (figuratively) us eating the red herring. truth of the matter is all politicians seek the backing of wealthy donors / special interest groups including the RIAA, because indie artists who aren't part of corporate rock / corporate greed aren't big political donors. laws will not be made in favor of the people.

      --
      Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
    5. Re:Would you kindly cut out the political crap? by g0bshiTe · · Score: 1

      This

      Regardless of party affiliation I see no Congress Critters that aren't in the pockets of some corp or lobby group.

      Our political system currently knows nothing about serving anyone but the elite.

      --
      I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
    6. Re:Would you kindly cut out the political crap? by oldmac31310 · · Score: 1

      aisle

      --
      http://www.acetonestudio.com
    7. Re:Would you kindly cut out the political crap? by g0bshiTe · · Score: 1

      ^ gets it has nothing to do with party affiliation and it's all about $$$$.

      I think the my party is better than your party is claptrap.

      It's nothing more than divide and conquer.

      --
      I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
    8. Re:Would you kindly cut out the political crap? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Canada does not yet have a two party system.

      Um, that is exactly what I said. Whether it is Lizard A or Lizard B, they are both lizards. In other words, ONE party.

      It is entirely relevant who is in power with regards to these kind of LEGISLATIVE changes.

      Oh, I see, you think that there's a difference between Lizard A and Lizard B. I feel so sorry for you.

    9. Re:Would you kindly cut out the political crap? by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 1

      No, he's likely referring to the fact that there are more than two major parties in Canada, including one that's considerably to the left of what would be found in the US mainstream parties. He's also likely referring to the fact that the reason the Conservative Party has won the past few elections isn't that it's managed a majority of votes, but instead has won a majority of seats with a plurality of votes, due to the vote on the left being split. The Conservatives used to be split, but then the Reform Party became the Canadian Alliance and then merged with the Progressive Conservatives in 2003. The "yet" refers to the fact that the pressure in first past the post/winner take all systems is to do exactly that, because of the exact results seen since.

      Here's a quick breakdown of the major Canadian Federal parties:

      Conservative Party - Right Wing
      Liberal Party - Center-Left
      New Democratic Party - Left/Social Democrat

      There's also the Bloc Qu&#233;b&#233;cois, though in the past election (2011) they failed to get more than a handful of seats.

    10. Re:Would you kindly cut out the political crap? by lucien86 · · Score: 1

      You mean anyone with an IQ over 80? If you cant function with multiple contradictory views then you don't have a hope of understanding or functioning in todays modern society. Newspeak doublethink, double plus good comrades'. ..

      --
      Below the speed of light Special Relativity is one of the most accurate theories in physics - above the speed of light..
  24. moneyed jokers by charlesr44403 · · Score: 1

    i suppose these moneyed jokers think the works of Mozart and Beethoven should still be under copyright, with royalties going forever to some corporation.

  25. Immortals are corrupting.... by niftymitch · · Score: 1

    Immortals are corrupting much of our law and have in the past.

    In the past dynastic power bases ruled clashed with each other and crushed common people.
    Kings, Queens, Caliphates, Dynasty, Emperors, Pope, Pulpit all are the sharp end of immortal government
    systems that devolved in many social ways and were eventually upended.

    Today we have some ill begotten immortal legal frameworks that have many
    of the rights that citizens have. Their immortality allows them to gain power and move from
    a part of society to controlling society.

    This copyright issue is one symptom of an immortal (Mr. Mouse by way of example)
    that wields power and attempts to dominate part or all of society. When these
    immortals gather together as a group and throw their weight around, interesting
    and perhaps troubling things happen.

    Consider that immortals do not pay inheritance or death taxes. If one group of
    legal entities never pays a tax no group should pay that tax. There are more
    issues one of which is citizenship....

    "end-two-cents"

    --
    Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain.
    1. Re:Immortals are corrupting.... by desdinova+216 · · Score: 1

      There can be only one!

  26. Re:Protect the income of the creators or they can' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Your same pathetic argument can be made by every working person on the planet. Except no one else gets to work a few days and then collect the revenue from that brief labour (sorry, "life's work") forever either.

  27. Re:Protect the income of the creators or they can' by jordanjay29 · · Score: 1

    Star Wars?! Oh, man, there are so many better examples of Disney rehashing old works. How about Maleficent (aka Sleeping Beauty from the villain's perspective)? Or running the Disney Princess angle into the ground with Brave (at least other Princess films had a legend or fairy tale background, Brave was just a complete fabrication)? Better yet, let's just talk about Disney Princess films, and how Disney takes an old legend or fairy tale, and turns it into a highly profitable film and merchandising effort? If that's not rehashing the same shit over and over, I don't know what is. The recent Star Wars acquisition doesn't have anything on the black hole of creativity that is Disney.

  28. Stardate 201504.23 by Chas · · Score: 1

    Upon approaching the Neutral Zone with the RIAA, we have encountered an immensely powerful Stupid Field.

    But it's okay! We're drinking like fish and flinging poo at each other while Mr. Snot attempts to bore a hole in the outer hull and let space in...

    Man. And I thought Apple fanboys lived in a powerful RDF!

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
  29. "It's a Wonderful Life" was in the public domain by catchblue22 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Frank Capra's classic "It's a Wonderful Life" was largely forgotten in its time. In 1974, possibly due to an error, its copyright lapsed. TV networks, eager for low cost holiday fare, basically had this film running on a loop during certain times of the year. Then, Paramount managed to pull the movie back into copyright. And low and behold, the showings of this great movie slowed to a trickle once again. Public interest indeed. These media industry slime-balls are evil. Literally evil.

    --
    This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when first he appears as a protector - Plato (423 to 327 BC)
  30. Re:Nobody cares about public interest by Trogre · · Score: 1

    Damn, and I took the bait. Oh well, you live and learn I guess.

    --
    "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
  31. Re:Party Name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Uh, the party currently in power is, literally, called the "Conservative Party". If it was the NDP we'd say it's the NDP.

    And yes, their attitude has been overwhelmingly in favor of bending over and begging US legislators of doing it harder and more forcefully so they can feel the values deep inside their legislative body.

  32. Re:Protect the income of the creators or they can' by dwywit · · Score: 1

    Yep - copyright can only be owned by a human - not a corporation or a government. A human can licence reproduction of his/her works to another human for a period of time NOT TO EXCEED the lifespan of the creator. Might need to to have a catch-all there to cope with early death - see Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison, etc. Perhaps the copyright will expire at the time of expected human lifespan at the time of the work's creation. But then the creator might live longer than that. Well, the licence to reproduce is for the lifespan of the creator, so birthdate+expected lifespan years, or the death of the creator, whichever happens later. But then that tends to discriminate in favour of creators from countries/races with longer expected lifespans - bad luck for Australian aboriginal artists.

    It's complicated, isn't it? I suspect that's what drives the somewhat more simple "x years" or "creator's death plus x years" formulas. Fairer (or least unfair) for everyone, except that the value of 'X' can easily be extended with enough lobbying $$$.

    I think the only way to pull back the influence of the "industry" and their lobbying $$$ is strenuous and sustained pressure on politicians. "If you vote for another copyright extension, I will not vote for you".

    --
    They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
  33. Re:Protect the income of the creators or they can' by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

    There's a simple reason for that. Disney (branded) films are blockbusters - they have a huge production budget, hundreds of millions. The studio can't risk that much money on something new and untested, it might flop and cost them a fortune. If you're spending such a heap of cash you have to go with ideas that have a proven history of financial success - the stock cliches, or a remake or sequal. Low-budget films can afford to be more experimental.

  34. Re:Protect the income of the creators or they can' by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

    The 'creator's life' bit breaks down when you've got a work with many creators - a film might have a few hundred people directly contributing to the finished product. That's why the US goes for a fixed 95-year term for works-for-hire.

  35. Re:Logical fallacy here... by narcc · · Score: 1

    I've not see a mess like that in ages. Not only is your Latin impressively wrong, your application of logic is impossibly bad.

    It all goes to hell at the very beginning with "Ad prop". I don't even know what you were trying to say. It's complete gibberish. (If I had to guess, you were trying to use the phrase "post hoc ergo propter hoc" which directly translates to "after this, therefore, because of this". Though that has nothing to do with the rest of your post.)

    Moving on, the logic is as incomprehensible as your latin. "If this then that" (to which you thought that nonsense you wrote translates) is perfectly acceptable. Consider, for example, the modus ponens form: a -> b; a; :. b (by material implication, if you'd rather: a' v b; a; :. b)

    I should also note, for the sake of my own sanity, that an invalid argument asserts nothing about the truth of the conclusion. Shouting "logical fallacy!" is silly under the best of circumstances. It's absurd when you clearly don't understand basic logic.

  36. Them crazy Canucks, eh. by edittard · · Score: 1

    extend the term of copyright for sound recordings and performers

    I didn't know people could be copyrighted.

    --
    At the bottom of the /. main page it says 'Yesterday's News'. Well they got that right.
    1. Re:Them crazy Canucks, eh. by camperdave · · Score: 1

      Monsanto to the rescue, I'm sure.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  37. Counter example by aepervius · · Score: 2

    When there is no commercial interest, works get lost to the sand of times, far ,far quicker than when in public domain. Very recent example : a lot of commercial software or games are getting "legally" lost because nobody can copy them freely and maybe change them hack them to run in a VM. Film get lost , more recent film, because nobody care to copy them and distribute them commercially, and you cannot legally distribute them. Same with music or books.

    If copyright is held by cvompany : when they lose interrest but still protect copyright mercilessly, then works get lost and forgotten. When work is in the public domain, at least those possessing a copy can TRY to take care of maintaining them. In commercial hand the public hand are tied.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
  38. Read The Fucking Constitution by L.+J.+Beauregard · · Score: 1

    Yes, I know the article says Canada. But let us Read The Fucking Constitution of the United States:

    The Congress shall have Power...To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries...

    For LIMITED TIMES, dammit. Life plus however many years since Steamboat Willie was released is not a limited time.

    And TO PROMOTE THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND USEFUL ARTS. Not to make a bunch of fat cats fatter.

    --
    Ooh, moderator points! Five more idjits go to Minus One Hell!
    Delendae sunt RIAA, MPAA et Windoze
    1. Re:Read The Fucking Constitution by Stuarticus · · Score: 1

      Any time period less than infinity is limited. - Your Lawyer

      That will be 1 million dollars.

      --
      If you think someone isn't free to have a different definition of "freedom" you may be a tyrant.
    2. Re:Read The Fucking Constitution by careysub · · Score: 1

      Any time period less than infinity is limited.

      And that is exactly the reasoning that the Supreme Court has used to uphold the legality of the copyright extensions. Since there is some limit, even though it isn't fixed, and keeps getting extended for the very same work, now long past the life of the creator, it is still "limited". If Congress passed an extension to a thousand years, it would still be limited.

      --
      Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
  39. Stop resting on your laurels by L.+J.+Beauregard · · Score: 1

    So the "content" industry is crapping its pants, so afraid they can't make any money off their old content?

    Here's an idea that y'all don't seem to have thought of.

    Make some new content that will actually sell.

    Today's music mostly sucks. Yeah, I know, Sturgeon's Law and we're mostly comparing the best of the past to everything made today. But can anyone look me in the eye and say that even one band active today will be relevant in 40 years? Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm eighty four?

    Stop resting on your laurels. Tell those Autotuned bottle blondes and soundalike boy bands and rap crap clap trap to grow some talent or STFU. Make some new content that's worth buying, and guess what? You get a brand spanking new copyright and you'll still be making money off of it long after I'm dead.

    --
    Ooh, moderator points! Five more idjits go to Minus One Hell!
    Delendae sunt RIAA, MPAA et Windoze
    1. Re:Stop resting on your laurels by ledow · · Score: 1

      The problem is that they know all their own libraries still make them money. People are still making from the White Album.

      As that anchor is dragged forward, those artists and albums at the back stop making money for them. And then they realise that as that anchor is inexorably drawn forward from that point on, they lose more money every year because it's likely the new artists aren't making as much as the old back catalogues (maybe individual examples, but not overall).

      And then they realise that, in 50 years time, when all they have to monetise is the junk that they've been churning out recently, they are dead in the water and the industry will struggle to sustain itself. They're not saving themselves for today, but for their retirement, when they're basing their business on people buying Britney Spears' back catalogue etc.

      That said, any law that has to be revised the number of times that the copyright ones have should really be scrapped or made indefinite. If NOBODY in a certain industry (music industry, Disney, etc.) has ever seen their copyright expire, how on earth can we say that we need to legislate to extend that protection continually - and multiple times - without making the case that it should be indefinite or not?

      I'm not saying that's a GOOD solution, but someone needs to review the time and money spent messing about extending laws to cover timeframes - including overruling laws retroactively - and either fix a date in stone or make it indefinite. Pretending that it will eventually end up in the public domain while that never being legally possible is just outright scumbaggery.

  40. German "unfair competition" law by gnasher719 · · Score: 1

    Before software was protected by copyright, which happened sometime in the 80's or so, in Germany software was protected by "unfair competition law". Quite simply, if A hires developers for a million to write software and sells it, and B just copies the software, that is unfair competition. However, "unfair competition" only applies if A is actually selling the software; if A doesn't sell it, then B isn't competing with A at all, whether fair or unfair. Obviously now software is under copyright, so things have changed.

    With very old works the same could be done: Let them run out of copyright. However, it would be "unfair competition" and thus illegal to compete with the copyright holder. So as long as Disney is selling Steamboat Willy, it would be protected. If they stop selling it, you can copy it and even sell it freely.

    1. Re:German "unfair competition" law by aaaaaaargh! · · Score: 1

      That's not the right way, you need to give power to the actual content creators, not the companies who make the money with their works.

      Think about it, it's fucking crazy and also hypocritical of society as a whole that an author can earn the Nobel Prize in Literature and will still have to sign away his copyright and all further rights on his works to some company in order to be able to make a living.

    2. Re:German "unfair competition" law by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 1

      So Disney ensures that every quarter, at least one copy of Steamboat Willy is sold. Or they simply show it once a year on the Disney Channel, which means they are making money off it.

      Better to specify a fixed term for copyright in the spirit of the US constitution: "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Art...". Copyright should be about the public interest; the interests of creators are secondary to that. A copyright term should be short enough to ensure that all works enter the public domain in a meaningful time frame, but long enough to allow creators to cash in on successful works, and long enough to make sure publishers don't simply outwait creators so they don't have to pay them. 25 years ought to be ample.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    3. Re:German "unfair competition" law by gnasher719 · · Score: 1

      So Disney ensures that every quarter, at least one copy of Steamboat Willy is sold. Or they simply show it once a year on the Disney Channel, which means they are making money off it.

      We are talking about Germany here. Judges there don't like it if you game the system. Steamboat Willy would have to be on sale publicly, so that everyone who wants to watch it can do so. And judges can see if the price is exorbitant so that no actual sales are made.

      So it covers my reasoning against eternal copyright: That copyright makes works disappear if the copyright owner doesn't care about it anymore. It doesn't cover lots of people's reasoning: That eternal copyright is bad because we want things for free.

  41. Re:Protect the income of the creators or they can' by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

    Star Wars?! Oh, man, there are so many better examples of Disney rehashing old works. How about Maleficent (aka Sleeping Beauty from the villain's perspective)? Or running the Disney Princess angle into the ground with Brave (at least other Princess films had a legend or fairy tale background, Brave was just a complete fabrication)? Better yet, let's just talk about Disney Princess films, and how Disney takes an old legend or fairy tale, and turns it into a highly profitable film and merchandising effort? If that's not rehashing the same shit over and over, I don't know what is. The recent Star Wars acquisition doesn't have anything on the black hole of creativity that is Disney.

    How about Avatar which is Pocahontas in space, which is a rip off of Dances with wolves which is no doubt a rip off of something else and so forth.

    --
    Wanna buy a shirt?
    https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
  42. Re:nice argument, considering the ridiculous propo by r_a_trip · · Score: 1

    Were big, we own this shit, we don't want to create new stuff, we want to be paid in perpetuity!

    - mob of Corporate Leeches

    --
    # touch universe # chmod +rwx universe # ./universe
  43. Re:Protect the income of the creators or they can' by coofercat · · Score: 1

    My only problem with the "until death" thing is that legally, everything else I do whilst married is partly due to my wife, and so would be part-owned by her in the event of a divorce. Thus, if I write a new 'happy birthday' song, it's in-part down to her. She should get some benefit if I die the day after I write it. I'd agree that a bazillion years of benefit is too much - I'd imagine 10-20 years should be plenty.

  44. Re:"It's a Wonderful Life" was in the public domai by arth1 · · Score: 3, Funny

    And low and behold

    Unless you talk to an audience of cows, you want to say "lo and behold".

  45. Headline should read by MitchDev · · Score: 1

    Music Industry a bunch of retards with no clue, only greed

  46. Re:Nobody cares about public interest by Maritz · · Score: 1

    there is considerable public interest in it staying.

    You like it, do you? Can't say I used it enough to notice much difference.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  47. Re:"It's a Wonderful Life" was in the public domai by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

    "It's a Wonderful Life" was, is, and always will be, a crap movie. The people at the time it was made recognized this, which is why it was forgotten. The behavior of the cast, especially George, is the sort of thing that would get him thrown in jail today - verbally abusive to his wife and kids, physically manhandling his wife, giving an important deposit to Uncle Billy when he knew Uncle Billy was, in George's words, "a drunken old fool" and then blaming Billy for his own error in judgment, refusing to take responsibility for his mistakes by trying to drown himself and leaving the mess behind for everyone else to deal with. We have all this foreshadowed in his refusal to give Mary back her clothes while she's hiding behind the bush. Beneath that "oh shucks" exterior lurked a bully.

    The only reason it was showed every year is because it was cheap to do so.

    I'd rather watch Bill Murray's "Scrooged."

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  48. Re:Because the public must PAY! by Maritz · · Score: 1

    Yes. The recording industry associations are disgraceful, but they are only so obnoxious because they know, ultimately, that they're on the way out. Enjoy watching their endless dismay of being on the wrong side of history.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  49. Re:Public Domain is dead by Maritz · · Score: 1

    That you find an equivalency there reflects very poorly on your awareness of the issues.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  50. Re:Protect the income of the creators or they can' by c · · Score: 1

    Copyright needs to (I reckon) end with the death of the creator; simple.

    Given that we've established that the entertainment industry is a collection of sociopathic asshats, are you quite sure you want to give them a genuine monetary incentive to, say, kill copyright holders in order to plunder their now-orphan works?

    Then there's the whole question of figuring out if/when a creator died.

    A reasonable fixed term from publication/creation makes the most sense. Emphasis on "reasonable".

    --
    Log in or piss off.
  51. Jazz bands are losing to old recordings by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

    I remember readings that jazz bands are under dire pressure from dead people's recordings (a lot of them pre-WW2) which causes them to disband or fail to get some hold in the first place. That is exacerbated by technology, as it is rather trivial to store some 100GB and make a playlist ; and that's full quality music not a 128K MP3 from the year 2000. (and the internet can give the content of an old record that stayed in very good condition)
    It is very easy to make an "audiophile digital player network audio transport" too : add a cheap sound card to the kind of PC businesses were throwing out five years ago (and use the cheapest cable you can find). Gives you the same quality as a $5000 CD player.

    I do think some artists are very much threatened by this. Though acoustic bands playing in bars and whatever places isn't something the evil record companies would care much about, and/or the record from the evil major companies are enabling this problem anyway (whether acquiring them was legit or they were torrented)

  52. Classical music. Public domain. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Indeed. Even in cases where published classical music - and its orchestration - is in the public domain for many decades, modern performances of it are often not. They involve copyrights with royalties to the performer and various technicians involved. It is necessary to either (i) get releases from the performers and possibly those technicians that the performance will be released to the public domain, or (ii) the performer releases them to the public domain, and has such a condition in the employment contracts of any technicians.

    There are efforts to issue classical music in the public domain, especially by musopen.org and kimiko-piano.org, which are mirrored on archive.org. There are loads of public domain classical pieces at musopen.org. We have contributed to two of Musopen's kickstarter campaings (the Musopen DVD, and Musopen's complete works of Chopin), as well as two of Kimiko Ishizaka's (Open Goldberg Variations and The Well-tempered Clavier).

  53. Re:Protect the income of the creators or they can' by Jason+Levine · · Score: 1

    Or running the Disney Princess angle into the ground with Brave (at least other Princess films had a legend or fairy tale background, Brave was just a complete fabrication)?

    Wait, so Disney is criticized when they take stories from the public domain and retell them but also criticized if they come up with new stories? I know that Disney's not the most popular company when it comes to copyright discussions, but you can't have it both ways. If you didn't like Brave, that's fine, but criticizing them for coming up with an original story is really reaching.

    --
    My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
  54. Re:Protect the income of the creators or they can' by 31415926535897 · · Score: 1

    ...create anything. Just 'cos the 'net makes it easy to copy and distribute creative works does not make it OK. People who just don't want to pay for stuff should admit it instead of pretending they have some kind of real philosophy or that is is for the creators' good (I mean, it might be, but it should be up to them to decide, not some guy in a basement who really just wants free stuff).

    I agree with you so far. When I was in college, I didn't want to pay for anything because I couldn't afford anything. Now I've had real income for a while, so I'm happy to pay for the IP I use. Generally, IP should be honored via copyright and patents.

    The problem is the middle level. I want creators to get well paid and consumers to get well priced access. That does not need a record company, say, in the traditional sense.

    Copyright needs to (I reckon) end with the death of the creator; simple. And the creator has to be a human not a corporation. Probably legally difficult, but makes sense to me. I guess we need ways for copyright to be signed over to a corporation; or do we? Leased instead, until the 'death' of either party or until some agreed time prior. That way a corp can 'own' the copyright but only till the creator dies or the contract is up, whichever comes first.

    Wait, why does it need to be so long? What you suggest is shorter than the current Infinity-1 the middle men are aiming for, but what was wrong with the original 14+14years on copyright? It's not like 99.999% of IP can be monetized past 5 years anyway.

    I think that copyright can be owned by corporations in a problem. It should always be owned by the creator, and they can license it to corporations if they would like. Creators should never lose their copyright.

    This argument I keep hearing that free distribution of, for example, music benefits the musician because they 'make more money in live shows anyway' is moronic in the extreme. Like every musician has the same business model? Sure, for some it might work that way: http://gizmodo.com/5903937/six... but not everybody can keep touring. They get older -- do they suddenly lose the right to make any money off their life's work because they can't tour behind it? Musician thinks: "Gee, I've got kids, a wife who works, I can't spend 10 months a year on the road like when I was 25 -- and double whammy, I don't get royalties either 'cos apparently I 'benefit' from all the exposure I get from my music being free." One size never fits all and ideology is often a cover for greed.

    Okay, I wanted to preface my post by saying I pay (a lot) for IP, and I'm an honest guy. And honestly, what you say here is pure crap. I'm a developer, and I don't get to coast on the fruit of my "life's work" forever. You want to make more money, produce more IP. Like everyone. Music and video are not special.

    By the way, it's because of the blood-sucking middle men that musicians can't make a decent buck from their recordings.

    Ideally, creators get to say what happens. That's bound to encourage people to create. They can release their songs into the wild if they want, or not. But it's not up to 'us' to decide.

    Creators get to participate in the conversation. The People get to say what happens. We had a reasonable deal at first: max 28 years of copyright. Then the lawmakers started listening to the IP holders instead of The People and we have the crap system that doesn't let anything ever go into Public Domain.

  55. Home Music is Killing Taping (uh, downloads) by jsepeta · · Score: 1

    I don't teach myself guitar for many songs written by other artists. I'm far more interested in creating my own content, thankyouverymuch.

    --
    Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
  56. Partial to "Christmas Vacation" here... by Ellis+D.+Tripp · · Score: 1

    Merry Christmas! Shitter was full!

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    Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
  57. Rebuttal from 2 decades ago by T.E.D. · · Score: 1
    I see a lot of people making arguments here that are valid, but IMHO not quite as well laid-out as what Stallman said on this subject 20 year ago:

    Copyright policy issues are about which bargains benefit the public, not about what rights publishers or readers are entitled to.

    The copyright system developed along with the printing press. In the age of the printing press, it was unfeasible for an ordinary reader to copy a book. Copying a book required a printing press, and ordinary readers did not have one. What's more, copying in this way was absurdly expensive unless many copies were made—which means, in effect, that only a publisher could copy a book economically.

    So when the public traded to publishers the freedom to copy books, they were selling something which they could not use. Trading something you cannot use for something useful and helpful is always good deal. Therefore, copyright was uncontroversial in the age of the printing press, precisely because it did not restrict anything the reading public might commonly do.

    But the age of the printing press is gradually ending. The xerox machine and the audio and video tape began the change; digital information technology brings it to fruition. These advances make it possible for ordinary people, not just publishers with specialized equipment, to copy. And they do!

    Once copying is a useful and practical activity for ordinary people, they are no longer so willing to give up the freedom to do it. They want to keep this freedom and exercise it instead of trading it away. The copyright bargain that we have is no longer a good deal for the public, and it is time to revise it—time for the law to recognize the public benefit that comes from making and sharing copies.

    1. Re:Rebuttal from 2 decades ago by T.E.D. · · Score: 1
      Here's a good passage from a 2009 speech about the history of copyright, and how it applies today.:

      Now in the early centuries of printing, and still I believe in the 1790s, lots of readers wrote copies by hand because they couldn't afford printed copies. Nobody ever expected copyright law to be something other than an industrial regulation. It wasn't meant to stop people from writing copies, it was meant to regulate the publishers. Because of this it was easy to enforce, uncontroversial, and arguably beneficial for society.

      It was easy to enforce, because it only had to be enforced against publishers. And it's easy to find the unauthorized publishers of a book—you go to a bookstore and say “where do these copies come from?”. You don't have to invade everybody's home and everybody's computer to do that.

      It was uncontroversial because, as the readers were not restricted, they had nothing to complain about. Theoretically they were restricted from publishing, but not being publishers and not having printing presses, they couldn't do that anyway. In what they actually could do, they were not restricted.

      It was arguably beneficial because the general public, according to the concepts of copyright law, traded away a theoretical right they were not in a position to exercise. In exchange, they got the benefits of more writing.

      Now if you trade away something you have no possible use for, and you get something you can use in exchange, it's a positive trade. Whether or not you could have gotten a better deal some other way, that's a different question, but at least it's positive.

      So if this were still in the age of the printing press, I don't think I'd be complaining about copyright law. But the age of the printing press is gradually giving way to the age of the computer networks—another advance in copying technology that makes copying more efficient, and once again not uniformly so.

      Here's what we had in the age of the printing press: mass production very efficient, one at a time copying still just as slow as the ancient world. Digital technology gets us here: they've both benefited, but one-off copying has benefited the most.

      We get to a situation much more like the ancient world, where one at a time copying is not so much worse [i.e., harder] than mass production copying. It's a little bit less efficient, a little bit less good, but it's perfectly cheap enough that hundreds of millions of people do it. Consider how many people write CDs once in a while, even in poor countries. You may not have a CD-writer yourself, so you go to a store where you can do it.

      This means that copyright no longer fits in with the technology as it used to. Even if the words of copyright law had not changed, they wouldn't have the same effect. Instead of an industrial regulation on publishers controlled by authors, with the benefits set up to go to the public, it is now a restriction on the general public, controlled mainly by the publishers, in the name of the authors.

      In other words, it's tyranny. It's intolerable and we can't allow it to continue this way.

      As a result of this change, [copyright] is no longer easy to enforce, no longer uncontroversial, and no longer beneficial.

      It's no longer easy to enforce because now the publishers want to enforce it against each and every person, and to do this requires cruel measures, draconian punishments, invasions of privacy, abolition of our basic ideas of justice. There's almost no limit to how far they will propose to go to prosecute the War on Sharing.

      It's no longer uncontroversial. There are political parties in several countries whose basic platform is “freedom to share”.

      It's no longer beneficial because the freedoms that we conceptually traded away (because we couldn't exercise them), we now can exercise. They're tremendously useful, and we want to exercise them.

  58. The recording industry ... by PPH · · Score: 1

    ... is just whistling Dixie* if they think we are going to submit to their wishes.

    *Subject to copyright restrictions, of course.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  59. Re:"It's a Wonderful Life" was in the public domai by camperdave · · Score: 1

    Your perspective is warped. If characters performing behaviour that would get you thrown in jail were the criterion for making a movie bad, then we can toss Pulp Fiction; Kill Bill; Ocean's Eleven; Batman; The Usual Suspects; The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly; practically every western, actually; every crime movie; every vigilante movie; every horror movie; and a whole slew of others right on the trash heap.

    --
    When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  60. Re:"It's a Wonderful Life" was in the public domai by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    and an apiary that sits on the ground could be "low and beehold"

  61. Re:Nobody cares about public interest by camperdave · · Score: 1

    I do miss the "swim across the Atlantic" bit they used to have.

    But I miss far more, the old Google Calculator. You used to be able to stuff like "circumference of earth in football fields", but now-a-days it's not much better than a four function calculator.

    --
    When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  62. Re:Logical fallacy here... by camperdave · · Score: 1

    Italicised colon followed by a period to make the "therefore" symbol... clever.

    --
    When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  63. Re:Public Domain is dead by camperdave · · Score: 1

    Who says you can't make money from things in the public domain? Where do you think symphony orchestras get their material?

    --
    When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  64. Re:"It's a Wonderful Life" was in the public domai by catchblue22 · · Score: 1

    I suspect the movie's real "sin" was to make bank a banker like "old man Potter" the greedy villain. Today, the greedy banker/financier is the hero, acting valiantly in the "public interest".

    --
    This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when first he appears as a protector - Plato (423 to 327 BC)
  65. Re:Protect the income of the creators or they can' by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    Ideally, creators get to say what happens. That's bound to encourage people to create. They can release their songs into the wild if they want, or not. But it's not up to 'us' to decide.

    We don't really care if people create unless they are driven, because we want them to do their best. And yes, they can release their songs into the wild if they want, or not. If they don't share them with anyone, then nobody can copy them. And their ideas can die in obscurity with them.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  66. CRAP by Dr.+Evil · · Score: 1

    The Canadian Reform Alliance Party? They were very aware of the multi-party system and were a merger to reduce division between the severe-right and the moderate right.

    We have CRAP to thank for the modern Canadian Conservatives.

  67. Re:"It's a Wonderful Life" was in the public domai by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

    Bill Murray's character wasn't doing anything that would be considered illegal today (until he started with the "staple antlers on the mice").

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  68. Like say Mickey Mouse by Mister+Null · · Score: 1

    What we don't need is an extension into perpetuity like what Disney is pushing for Mickey Mouse. Artists need to make more money off of their efforts while alive, so that they can live a reasonable not marginal life. Not a fan of let's keep the money making machine going for some corporation.

  69. Re:"It's a Wonderful Life" was in the public domai by marcello_dl · · Score: 1

    George is a two dimensional character, like all others he is merely functional to the story, so you might sure think this film is crap, but justify it with different reasons, because the legality or moral acceptability of the main character's behavior is completely unrelated to the quality of the movie.
    If the movie sets bad examples, that becomes a problem for the viewer, for society maybe, but not for the movie itself.

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    ---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
  70. Re:they lie like Muslims by lucien86 · · Score: 1

    Islamic state merely behead people. The recording industry steal our souls - suck them right out - then sell pieces of them back to us at a profit..

    --
    Below the speed of light Special Relativity is one of the most accurate theories in physics - above the speed of light..