Mark D Lew wrote:
On Oct 23, 2007, at 6:23 PM, David W. Fenton wrote:
I don't see how the public domain can shrink, unless non-copyrighted
works are somehow re-copyrighted.
Which has actually happened, albeit on a small scale, when copyright
protection was extended to certain countries that thitherto had been
denied protection. Most famously, a bunch of Russian scores went back
under protection some time in the 1980s. I'm sure many on this list
remember that.
Yes, that's true, and it did shrink the U.S. public domain a tiny (but
significant due to the works affected) bit.
That seems likely to have been a one-time issue, though, since the
Uruguay round of GATT pulled most copyright terms into accord with each
other.
However, I wouldn't put it past the U.S. Congress to work on a copyright
extension bill which would pull some current PD materials back under
copyright, if they get enough spiffs, campaign contributions, and other
payments from wealthy content providers who have lost material to the PD.
--
David H. Bailey
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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