<
https://www.techdirt.com/2022/11/29/canada-steals-cultural-works-from-the-public-by-extending-copyright-terms/>
"We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again: it
cannot make sense to
extend copyright terms retroactively. The entire point of copyright law is to
provide a
limited monopoly on making copies of the work
as an incentive to
get the work produced. Assuming the work
was produced, that says that the
bargain that was struck was clearly enough of an incentive for the creator.
They were told they’d receive that period of exclusivity and thus they created
the work.
Going back and retroactively extending copyright then serves no purpose.
Creators need no incentive for
works already created. The
only thing it
does is steal from the public. That’s because the “deal” setup by governments
creating copyright terms is between the public (who is temporarily stripped of
their right to share knowledge freely) and the creator. But if we extend
copyright term retroactively, the public then has their end of the bargain
(“you will be free to share these works freely after such-and-such a date”)
changed, with no recourse or compensation.
That makes no sense.
And yet, countries keep doing it.
Canada has quietly done it: extending copyrights on literary, dramatic or
musical works and engravings from life of the author plus 50 years year to life
of the author plus 70 years."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
