[12511] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Please veto copyright extension bill (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Michael S. Hart)
Thu Oct 22 20:20:50 1998
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 18:20:23 -0500
From: "Michael S. Hart" <hart@prairienet.org>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Here is a nice sample letter to the President,
asking that he not sign the new copyright laws
passed during the heyday of impeachment, while
the budget bills were not being taken care of.
This demonstrates just how important they have
felt these copyright laws are, and how secret.
I have added a few commends below Greg Newby's
for your additional consideration.
Thanks!
Michael
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 14:43:11 -0400
From: Greg Newby <gbnewby@ils.unc.edu>
To: "'president@whitehouse.gov'" <president@whitehouse.gov>
Subject: Please veto copyright extension bill
Dear Mr. President:
I am writing to urge you to veto the copyright extension
bill (S. 505 as amended & passed last night in the House
and Senate).
This is an unjust law. For people who purchased books
and other materials 75 years ago (or who own materials that
are this old), this means that the materials which SHOULD
have gone out of copyright this year will not.
This is a severe blow to the many digital library projects
that seek to create free libraries of public domain
texts and other materials. Such projects are core to what
the Internet is supposed to be about: equity, freedom and
lessened barriers (of all sorts) to access.
For information about the oldest free digital library of
electronic texts, visit the Project Gutenberg Web site
at http://promo.net/pg The new copyright extension will
make it difficult for the continued creation of free and
extensive collections of literature.
Sincerely,
Dr. Gregory B. Newby
// Gregory B. Newby, Assistant Professor in the School of Information
// and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
// CB# 3360 Manning Hall, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-3360 E:gbnewby@ils.unc.edu
// V: 919-962-8064 F: 919-962-8071 W: http://www.ils.unc.edu/~gbnewby/
// Home: 125 Olive Branch Road, Roxboro, NC, 27573. 336-597-5380.
***
In addition to the points made by Professor Newby,
which are great points, I would ask that you include
some words of your own, perhaps a total rewrite, to
insure your email gets some individual attention,
if there is such a thing. If you don't have time
to do this today, just forwarding this message,
will still mean something, so go ahead and send.
You might also want to consider some of these:
1.
The average length of an actual copyright at the
beginning of this century was about 15 years, as
items were required to be renewed to get extended
from 14 to 18 years, and most items were already
well out of print after the first 14 year term.
This new law would create an actual length of
copyright between 95 and 120 years, and would
not require anything renewal applications.
If the United States and the United Kingdom
could not hold on to the Panama Canal and to
Hong Kong for over 99 years due to laws that
prohibit those deals from any longer period,
then how can it possibly be legal to have a
copyright for longer than 99 years?
2.
This law basically extends copyrights that
have been extended over and over already.
Shouldn't the old copyrights be allowed to
complete their terms under their original
contracted periods, and, if legal, a new
copyright law only take effect AFTER the
old copyrights have run their term?
3.
United States Copyright provides for a
"limited" term of copyright protection,
but this limit has turn from a solid to
a liquid during this century of advanced
publication and distribution, and "limit"
is something the Congress and copyright
lobbyists think they can change at will,
especially when new technologies such as
the steam and electric presses of the
turn of the century first made books
easy to own. Do you recall that the
Sears catalog of the turn of the century
was the first book millions of people owned?
This prompted the Copyright Act of 1909,
which pretty much ruined all the new owners
of publishing empires who reprinted books
with these new presses at affordable prices.
The same happened again in 1976 to kill off
the possibility of legal publication of public
domain materials with the famed Xerox machine.
It is happening again now, to kill of the idea
that everyone could have a copy of ever book
in the public domain, just by downloading from
the Internet, at a cost per book so low as to
be literally "too cheap to meter."
4.
The only materials that will benefit from
this new law are those that have already
made millions or billions of dollars and
are still "in print" after 75 years. The
average book deemed worthy of purchase by
the public library system is out of print
after only 5 years. If half of the rest
of these books go out of print at the same
rate of 5 years after that, then 99% of all
those items are out of print after only 35
years. . .this is a law that only profits
those who need profit the least, those who
have made the most profit already.
Unless you are intentionally passing laws
to take millions of items out of access by
the right of public domain to profit less
than 1% of the longest running copyrights,
you will not sign this bill into law.
I have waited my whole life to publish my
own edition of "Winnie the Pooh" and my
life expectancy is not such that I can
plan to do so after this third extension,
from 28 to 56 to 75 to 95 years. . . .
Please, "Free Winnie Now."
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Thanks!
=============================================
Michael S. Hart, Professor of Electronic Text
Benedictine University [Illinois Benedictine]
Carnegie Mellon University Visiting Scientist
Executive Director of Project Gutenberg Etext
Post Office Box 2782, Champaign IL 61825-3231
No official connection to U of Illinois--UIUC
Permanent Internet Address!!! hart@pobox.com
Internet User Number 100 [approximately] [TM]
One of the several "Ask Dr Internet" Sponsors
Break Down the Bars of Ignorance & Illiteracy
On the Carnegie Libraries' 100th Anniversary!
If I don't answer in two days, please resend.
It usually means I did not get/see your note.
For General Information on Project Gutenberg
Please send us email at: dircompg@pobox.com
