[cc-community] rewritten section in Bounty Hunters
Greg London
email at greglondon.com
Tue Apr 4 23:15:16 EDT 2006
Hey all,
I just wanted to post a note that I've updated Bounty Hunters with some
slight changes. The main one is that folks have a hard time with my
proposal to reset copyright terms to 40 years. It seems too arbitrary for
them. (As if Life-Plus-50 was something that scientists and mathematicians
figured out via some objective method, but I digress.) Anyway, I tweaked
my proposed change to copyright terms from 40 years to 42 years on the
basis that America had copyright terms set to 42 years or less for over a
century, and a number of famous american authors were willing to write
with a 42 year term, Mark Twain being one of the most famous and most
successful from a commercial point of view. I also address the fact that
Mark Twain, though he was willing to write for a 42 year term, lobbyied
congress for a life-plus-50 term to match Europe's recent change to their
copyright law. Twain, as it happens, used some of teh exact same flawed
metaphors that Disney and the Record companies and Movie industries use
today: physical metaphors. Interestingly enough, Twain used these physical
metaphors about literary works to then argue for infinite copyright terms.
It's almost creepy how those same metaphors showed up almost a century
later by one of the most successful and richest copyright holders in 1976
(Disney) to finally get Life-Plus-50 terms. Then they showed up again in
1998 to add another 20 years on to that. And they seem quite intent on
getting Mister Twain his wish of copyright terms that last for Perpetuity.
Anyway, there is one section that has been completely rewritten to justify
a 42 year term. I just posted it on my website. It is licensed CC-BY. You
can read the changed section here
http://www.greglondon.com/bountyhunters/bountyhunters.htm#3_2_5_Resetting_the_Bounties
Feedback is always welcomed.
Greg
--
Bounty Hunters: Metaphors for Fair IP laws
http://www.greglondon.com/bountyhunters/
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