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cc-licenses - Re: Van Helsing and the Public Domain

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Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

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  • From: Sigmascape1 AT cs.com
  • To: cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: Van Helsing and the Public Domain
  • Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 12:48:43 -0400

>Subject: Re: Van Helsing and the Public Domain
>To: "Discussion on the Creative Commons license drafts"
>    <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
>Message-ID:
>    <2671.207.180.130.165.1084164738.squirrel AT webmail5.pair.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1
>
>
>The problems are:
>
>1) The DMCA subverts all Fair Use by simple application
>         of the most rudimentary encryption algorithm
>2) Copyright Duration is absurdly long
>3) software can be patented
>4) Except for a few (and irrelvent to today's technology)
>         cases enumerated in the 1976 Copyright Act,
>         "Fair Use" is left to the decision of a Judge,
>         which therefore requires a truckload of money
>         to see a court case to its conclusion.
>
>The fact that Disney fought to have copyright term
>EXTENDED just before Micky Mouse and Steamboat Willie
>were about to enter the Public Domain, now THAT is a
>more interesting fight.
>

I hope I made sense with my original post. My thought process was simple...
the movie Van Helsing is a great example of how important the Public Domain
is to the U.S. and the world. The idea that this movie studio changed the
first name of a classic character and made it a new, and original product
(I.P.) is exactly what the world needs. Building on the PD is critical.
That's the beauty of the PD... I can create "Mitch Van Helsing," write an
original story, and market it to whomever.

Just wanted to point out the importance of the Public Domain.

Also, one final point... Greg, you are 100% correct. The copyright length is
unbelievablely long. Disney, Apple and other companies that pushed for the
most recent extension should understand that what they did is helping to fuel
a very interesting movement today. I like to think that we are just beginning
to see the growth of open content in general. Thanks to the Creative Commons,
the open source software community and others, we are starting to see a true
revolution (possibly evolution) of intellectual property, and how IP is dealt
with.

Thanks!

Mitch Featherston






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