Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Copyright office head denounces "big mistake" of extending copyright
The head of the US copyright office has accused Congress of making a mistake by extending the length of copyright in America, calling the term "too long," and saying that Congress made a "big mistake."

The remarkable admission came at the tail end of an event held at the UNC Law School on November 2, 2005, when Mary-Beth Peters, the Register of Copyrights, and a panel of copyright scholars, lawyers and bureaucrats convened to deliberate copyright in public.

Peters can be heard making the statement one minutes and eight seconds into the video linked below:

[1:08] We've certainly lengthened the term [of copyright] perhaps -- I won't even say perhaps -- too long a term. I think it is too long. I think that was probably a big mistake, but one that Congress can make."





From Boing Boing

Credit: The University of North Carolina and UNC-TV for the video capture and TJ Ward for digizing it.

http://www.ibiblio.org/yugen/video/too_long.mp4
http://www.ibiblio.org/yugen/video/too_long.avi
http://www.ibiblio.org/yugen/video/too_long.mpg

Encouraging.

Thanks leflaw for the links. Mary-Beth, I want to buy you a pizza!

thanx to DMember peatrap

tell me this is not a joke. The copyright office might think it's too long, but I'm sure the RIAA thinks the term isn't long enough.

Encouraging talk is, well, uh, encouraging.
Let's see if it leads to anything productive.

—BottomlineCodger
(not really my username, just feeling goofy for a moment)

Unbelievable...that it took her this long to realize this.

"I think that was probably a big mistake, but one that Congress can make."

Yeah, that's because we have so many intelligent people in Congress. Oh yeah, that's right, they aren't intelligent. They are just GREEDY. I wonder how many dollars landed into Congress' hand when they passed the pathetic copyright law extension. I'm sure every RIAA company was right there smoking their cigars with hundred dollar bills.

The extension was certainly a big mistake.

That's great, Mary-Beth...but where were you during Eldred vs. Ashcroft?

" but one (mistake) that Congress can make."

Thats what Eldred vs Reno held - That Congress has the power to be idiots.

Eldred v Reno???????

At the very end of the too_long.avi video Mary-Beth says " we certainly have expanded rights".

We certainly do not. Our rights are diminishing everyday. I think she is still a corp shill but would like to see the whole thing.

Anybody have a torrent link?

relevant, if old article :

http://www.writingonyourpalm.net/column020422.htm

[The Congress shall have power] "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;"
-- Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution

"Intellectual property law assures authors the right to their original expression, but encourages others to build freely on the ideas that underlie it. This result is neither unfair nor unfortunate: It is the means by which intellectual property law advances the progress of science and art. We give authors certain exclusive rights, but in exchange we get a richer public domain... Nothing today, likely nothing since we tamed fire, is genuinely new: Culture, like science and technology, grows by accretion, each new creator building on the works of those who came before. Overprotection stifles the very creative forces it's supposed to nurture."
-- Judge Alex Kozinski, United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

"There is nothing new under the sun."
-- Ecclesiastes 1


His honor Kozinski "gets it".

Unfortunately, there is no longer "original expression" as Kozinski puts it.

"Congress has the power to be idiots."

Congress-critters also have the power to accept generous lobbying contributions, and (no surprise)
act favorably toward cartel desires.

"There is nothing new under the sun."

Especially when it comes to politics.
America has the best government that corporate money can buy.

NG2K3 :

Unfortunately, there is no longer "original expression" as Kozinski puts it.

Of course there is.

It is good to hear Mary-Beth Peters make this admission. The whole issue of super-long copyright terms needs to be in the public eye a lot more than it typically is.

And yes, we can certainly blame Congress for this (Dems and Repubs) along with the RIAA, MPAA, and Disney lobbyists.

The sharing of child porn is a fundamental human right.
Any attempt to stop it is a serious violation of freedom of speech.
Go! Child Porn Sharing!

Jackrabbits:

It appears that you have no morals whatsoever.

Child pornography is the one thing that is killing the p2p hobby and turning us into the bad guys.

It is damaging to the child's well-being and can cause a stigmata for many years to come in that child's life.

When I go on to download, I get sick and tired of seeing all of the search results containing images of young children getting screwed in one fashion or another. THIS HAS TO STOP NOW!

And if you share it or download it or possess it, you WILL go to jail for a long, long time PERIOD.