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Lawrence Lessig Criticizes Proposed 140-Year Copyright Protections (techcrunch.com)
EqualCitizens.US reports on growing opposition to the CLASSICS Act proposed by the U.S. Congress, which grants blanket copyright protection to all audio works created before 1972, leaving some of them copyrighted until 2067.
Importantly, the Act doesn't require artists or the rights holder to register for the copyright. Rather, any and all pre-1972 sound recordings would be copyrighted, greatly limiting the public's access to these works. Various organizations and scholars have responded. Equal Citizens along with a coalition of internet freedom and democracy reform organizations, is sending this letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee to urge its members to reject this Act in its entirety, or at a minimum, at least require registration of pre-1972 works. Otherwise, if the Act passes as is, famous artists and wealthy corporations will benefit greatly while the public will get absolutely nothing in return, as Professor Lawrence Lessig notes in Wired....
This act will limit access to past works and stifle creativity for new works. It would effectively remove many existing works, including some popular documentaries, podcasts, etc., from the public arena. The Coalition recommends adding a registration requirement to secure the extended copyright term, such that works that nobody claimed could be allowed to enter the public domain. As this TechCrunch report on the coalition letter explains:
By having artists and rights owners register, it solves the problem for everyone. Anyone who wants to have their pre-1972 works brought into the new scheme can easily achieve that, but orphan works will enter the public domain as they ought to.
"Either way," Lessig writes, "it is finally clear that the Supreme Court's prediction that the copyright owners would be satisfied with the copyright protection provided by the Sonny Bono Act turns out not to be true."
This act will limit access to past works and stifle creativity for new works. It would effectively remove many existing works, including some popular documentaries, podcasts, etc., from the public arena. The Coalition recommends adding a registration requirement to secure the extended copyright term, such that works that nobody claimed could be allowed to enter the public domain. As this TechCrunch report on the coalition letter explains:
By having artists and rights owners register, it solves the problem for everyone. Anyone who wants to have their pre-1972 works brought into the new scheme can easily achieve that, but orphan works will enter the public domain as they ought to.
"Either way," Lessig writes, "it is finally clear that the Supreme Court's prediction that the copyright owners would be satisfied with the copyright protection provided by the Sonny Bono Act turns out not to be true."
No. Robin Thicke didn't lose because his song "felt" like Got To Give It Up. He lost because his song WAS Got To Give It Up. He copied the Marvin Gaye song.
Now, we should discuss whether the copyright on Got To Give It Up should have expired a decade ago. I would say that yes, it should have expired. But as long as the copyright was in effect, what Robin Thicke did was a straight-up violation.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Hillary is not nearly as bad as the right wing noise machine makes her out to be. She is just not.
https://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/select-industries?ind=F27
Total funding by industry
Hedge Funds:
Hillary: $62 million
Trump: $19 million (barely higher than Rubio's and Jeb!'s totals)
Securities and Investement:
Hillary: $88 million
Jeb!: $33 million
Trump: $21 million
Commercial Banks:
Hillary: $2.8 million
Cruz: $1.7 million
Jeb!: $1.1 million
Rubio: $463,000
Trump: $403,000
Lobbyists:
Hillary: $2.2 million
Jeb!: $1.4 million
Rubio: $640,000
Christie: $184,000
O'Malley: $130,000
Trump: $129,000
Oil and Gas:
Jeb!: $10.4 million
(most of the rest of the republican candidates)
Trump: $992,000
Hillary: $967,000
Face it, the instant they saw Trump coming, corporate America completely jumped ship and took over the Democratic party. Even the usual boogeymen like the Koch brothers disowned Trump, and Sheldon Adelson only gave him half-hearted support when he won the nomination.
Every liberal who participated in or approved of OWS should be pissed as hell right now. It's not "right-wing corporatocracy" vs. "left-wing corporatocracy" anymore, it's just corporatocracy vs. populism. Especially as all the remaining nevertrumpers abandon the GOP.
The original motivation is that ideas and discoveries are good, and the inherent reproducibility of ideas is good because it leads to further ideas. However, some ideas take significant work to create, and if everyone else can instantly get all the benefit of my creation without any effort while I had to skip work to come up with it, then I have very little incentive to put in the time other than just for the love of it. The "copyright bargain" tries to establish an incentive for the creation of ideas by giving their creators a limited period where they get exclusive control over them (which is unnatural for an idea, unlike a physical object) and can directly benefit from their quality.
But the purpose is to eventually get the idea out there and circulating, not to establish an eternal property right. That's why the term of a copyright or patent is supposed to be limited. Initially, the public pays (via taxes) for the government to enforce an artificial control on the right-to-copy for enough time to make the act of creation a sensible gamble, and after that the public gets the full benefit of the idea's existence.
That's why the constitution says "to promote the progress of science and the useful arts", not "to make sure artists get paid".
...THIS is the reason for this new round of Copyright Extension BS.
Starting in 2024, Mickey Mouse will no longer be treated with the "Kid Glove Care" he has enjoyed for a FREAKING CENTURY, and as time progresses and Dis-SkyNet's copyrights expire, more and more of his puerile antics will become public domain.
The underlying cause is the fact that the copyright owners know they haven't produced anything of value in the LAST 50 years. Particularly corporate entities, which already get an EXTRA 50 years above private entities with this BS, so you KNOW it was NEVER about protecting the original artist's IP rights.
This was the real reason for Senator Sonny Bono's original bill, and it worked so well for Coprolite America they couldn't NOT try for ANOTHER round, DUH.
mnem
Follow. The. Money.