Creative Commons - Belgium

["wim schreurs" <wim.schreurs AT vub.ac.be>]

Dear readers,

What is the significance, for the average audience, of the protection terms
for neighbouring rights (10, 20, 100 or 500 years), when all records are
anyway locked behind password protected databases, accesible through payment
or subscription only, enjoying eternal protection? Databases enjoy eternal
copyright as long as "investments" in it take place.

What is the significance of the "public domain" if even 'Laurel and Hardy'
are protected by European and international trademarks, e.g. for "record
discs" (class 9) "entertainment" and "cultural activities" (class 41 - EU
trademark 000794354)? Trademarks enjoy eternal protection as long as the
trademarks are used and the protection periods are renewed through payment.

>From the protection of inspiration to the protection of transpiration?

Wim Schreurs

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: cc-be-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:cc-be-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org]Namens
cc-be-request AT lists.ibiblio.org
Verzonden: zondag 20 november 2005 18:00
Aan: cc-be AT lists.ibiblio.org
Onderwerp: Cc-be Digest, Vol 12, Issue 3


Send Cc-be mailing list submissions to
        cc-be AT lists.ibiblio.org

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
        http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-be
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
        cc-be-request AT lists.ibiblio.org

You can reach the person managing the list at
        cc-be-owner AT lists.ibiblio.org

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of Cc-be digest..."


Today's Topics:

   1. Re: IFPI Petition: Extend 50 years protection (Frederik Questier)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sun, 20 Nov 2005 13:56:28 +0100
From: Frederik Questier <frederik AT questier.com>
Subject: Re: [Cc-be] IFPI Petition: Extend 50 years protection
To: cc-be AT lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <200511201356.28847.frederik AT questier.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;  charset="iso-8859-1"

Op Saturday 19 November 2005 14:05, schreef Wouter Vanden hove:
> Hello,
>
> I would like to hear some opinions about the IFPI-petition in attachment.

These are just the record companies, trying to make copyright protections
infinite, killing the public domain, and increasing their control over the
artists.

> Exactly what is protected for 50 years?
>
> A songwriter writes lyrics for a song.
> a performer sings this song in agreement with the songwriter and puts it
> in a record to sell.
>
> Then what happens after 50 years?
> All royalties stop to the singer, but not the songwriter?

It means that when a performance is 50 years old, the copyrightholder of the
performance (and that is almost always the record company and not the
artists) is no longer the only one whose has control over the recording,
who can make money of it, or copy it freely.

This is of course in the case nobody else has still copyrights pending, such
as the songwriter. So think about 50-year old performances of e.g.
Beethoven's music.

This means e.g. that is harder than it should be for other artists such as
movie makers, to include old music in their own works...

Compare it with Disney: they copied lots of things from the public domain,
like Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, or a sad example:
Pinocchio in 1940, one year after the copyright of Carlo Collodi finished.
But now that their own creations like Mickey Mouse should finally have
fallen into the public domain, they are the strongest pushers for never
expiring copyrights...

This extension is totally against the original copyright idea (UK 1710: "for
the encouragement of learning"; US 1790: "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.")
Originally these protection terms were 14 years on request, renewable once
on request for 14 years.
If the record companies can't make enough profit by being the only one who
can sell a specific product during 50 years, they have a very flawed
business model.
Compare this with products like medicines: these need typically an
development investment of 300M Euros and can still be profitable with 20
years patent protection minus 10-12 years development.

Extending the record companies' monopoly for another 50 years (yes, they ask
100 years), will even stifle innovation, as it will be much easier for
those record companies to get the crazy high prices for the re-releases of
these oldies (on HD-DVD or whatever is next) than to invest in new artists.

Read also:
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,67783,00.html

Frederik

--
Free University - Free Software !
Vrije Universiteit - Vrije Software !

"The most fundamental way of helping other people,
is to teach people how to do things better
or how to better their lives.
For people who use computers, this means sharing the recipes
you use on your computer, in other words the programs you run."
                   Richard Stallman, Free Software Foundation.
--
Frederik Questier, PhD
Onderwijsvernieuwing &
Onderwijs Service Centrum
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
http://osc.vub.ac.be
http://questier.com


------------------------------

_______________________________________________
Cc-be mailing list
Cc-be AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-be


End of Cc-be Digest, Vol 12, Issue 3
************************************