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in reply to Re: OT: Preserving Information
in thread OT: Preserving Information

All of Abigail-II comments are right on the money. A good resource for this is Brad Templeton's10 Big Myths about copyright explained.

Personally, I'm surprised that caching sites such as Google have survived legally unscathed. I find it interesting that Yahoo avoids using this feature in their Google powered results. Perhaps there will be battles on this in the future.

For my own work in hymnology, I spend a lot of time with old publications that were once under copyright but have now gone into the public domain. I am very careful to restrict myself to editions that were published long enough ago so that they have clearly fallen into the public domain everywhere in the world. It is possible to take a public domain work, alter it, and claim copyright for the edited version (this is how critical edition publishers of music such as Henle and Wiener Urtext make their living).

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Re3: OT: Preserving Information
by blakem (Monsignor) on Oct 08, 2002 at 21:54 UTC
    published long enough ago so that they have clearly fallen into the public domain
    Tomorrow, the Supreme Court is hearing a case that will hopefully shorten the absurdly long time it currently takes for this to happen.

    -Blake

      I'm on the edge of me seat on this one.

      The problem with the Bono/Mickey Mouse Copyright Act isn't so much the overly long time frame targeted to benefit corporations, but how Congress retroactively changes that time frame.

      This is a huge decision for me. I must confess that I am not particularly optimistic given the courts track record on corporate vs. individual rights over the last 200 years.

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        The retroactive aspect is the part that has the best chance of being deemed unconstitional:
        US Constitution Establishment of Copyrights and Patents
        Article I, Section 8. Powers of Congress

        The Congress shall have the power ...
        [paragraph 8]
        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;

        You have to squint pretty hard to get retroactive extensions to fit under that language.

        -Blake