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To: JerseyHighlander
If they want to fix copyright law, they should simply abide by the Berne Convention and CLOSE the US Copyright office!

It's just another tax and bureaucracy. EU Copyright

The Berne Convention (which the US has signed) states that all something needs is constructive notice to be copyrighted... and lately not even that. It's enough to prove that you wrote something first.

But in the US, you cannot sue for damages or attorney's fees if you did not register your copyright with the US Copyright office for a fee of $45.00. Everywhere else in the world, this protection is free.

Imagine a blogger paying this $45.00 for every post to be protected?

So for all intents and purposes, US Copyright protection is effectively 3 months for most people. The rest of the world give authors copyright protection for about 50 years after their death.

5 posted on 05/09/2008 12:32:50 PM PDT by Bon mots
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To: Bon mots
The rest of the world give authors copyright protection for about 50 years after their death.

The rest of the world isn't constrained by the Copyright Clause of the Constitution. To comply with the Berne Convention and follow what the rest of the world does is to violate the Constitution.

37 posted on 05/09/2008 2:22:55 PM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: Bon mots
The Berne Convention (which the US has signed) states that all something needs is constructive notice to be copyrighted... and lately not even that. It's enough to prove that you wrote something first.

I've got a better idea. How about FedGov returning to a copyright law that a reasonable person might recognise as a "limted time"?

 The Constitution reads:

    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;

The entire Beatles catalog would be in the public domain if we had the same copyright the Founders of this nation thought was reasonable (28 years). There is no legitimate reason to have what we effectively have now, which is eternal copyright.

Hundreds of thousands if not millions of works are out of print and thus largely out of the public's reach because  copyright law has become nothing more than a Micky Mouse Protection racket for immortal corporations.

The current copyright law only makes sense if you are immortal.

68 posted on 05/10/2008 6:22:25 AM PDT by zeugma (Mark Steyn For Global Dictator!)
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