Re: [ARSCLIST] Britain reverses position on copyright extension

[Bob Olhsson <olh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

-----Original Message-----
>From Michael Biel: "...The Bono act brought a 70 year term -- already longer
than any other 
term in the world -- to a 90 year term.  So how can you include the Bono 
act in the category of : "the purpose of bringing each country's 
copyright term in line with all of the others..."

from http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/T?&report=sr315&dbname=104&; 
	
"The purpose of the bill is to ensure adequate copyright protection for
American works in foreign nations and the continued economic benefits of a
healthy surplus balance of trade in the exploitation of copyrighted works.
The bill accomplishes these goals by extending the current U.S. copyright
term for an additional 20 years. Such an extension will provide significant
trade benefits by substantially harmonizing U.S. copyright law to that of
the European Union while ensuring fair compensation for American creators
who deserve to benefit fully from the exploitation of their works. Moreover,
by stimulating the creation of new works and providing enhanced economic
incentives to preserve existing works, such an extension will enhance the
long-term volume, vitality and accessibility of the public domain."

" Thirty five years ago, the Permanent Committee of the Berne Union began to
reexamine the sufficiency of the life-plus-50-year term of protection. In
the intervening years, the inadequacy of the life-plus-50-year term to
protect creators in an increasingly competitive global marketplace has
become more apparent, leading to actions by several nations to increase the
duration of copyright. Most significantly, the nations of the European Union
issued a directive from the Council of the European Communities in 1993,
committing the member countries to implement a term of protection equal to
the life of the author plus 70 years by July 1, 1995.14

[Footnote]

[Footnote] 14Id.

To date, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain,
Sweden, and the United Kingdom have all complied with the EU Directive.
Furthermore, Portugal has recognized a perpetual term of protection for much
of this century. Other countries are currently in the process of bringing
their laws into compliance. In addition, as the Register of Copyrights,
Marybeth Peters, testified before the Committee, countries seeking to join
the EU, such as Poland, Hungary, Turkey, the Czech Republic, and Bulgaria,
are likely to amend their copyright laws to comply with the EU Directive.15"


Bob Olhsson Audio Mastery, Nashville TN
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