[Wikimediaindia-l] Massive increase in copyright term for photographs

[Pranesh Prakash]

Dear all,
It seems clear that through a new amendment to the Copyright Act, the
term of copyright of photographs is going to be increased from 25 years
(which is the minimum required by international copyright law) to 60
years *after the death of the photographer* (i.e., copyright term = life
of the photographer + 60 years).

So say a photographer aged 25 clicks a photograph and dies at the age of
75 (in 2061):
Under current law the copyright on that photo expires on January 1, 2037.
Under proposed law, copyright on that photo expires on January 1, 2122.

The difference: 85 years!

(I hope I've done the math correctly.)

So only your great-grandchildren will be able to upload that photograph
to Wikipedia.

As far as I can understand, there has been no positive lobbying on this
front by any photographers.  No one has really asked for it.

We, from the Centre for Internet and Society submitted a 'civil society
submission' (with the backing of 22 organizations) which criticised this
to the Standing Committee that was examining the amendment.  But the
chairman of that committee did not take notice.  In effect, the Standing
Committee heard only rightsholders (and groups, including ours, working
on the exception for persons with disabilities).

Are people on this list concerned about this?  If yes, then we all need
to try to get this particular amendment targetted and struck off when
the amendment gets presented before Parliament in the Monsoon session.

Regards,
Pranesh

-- 
Pranesh Prakash
Programme Manager
Centre for Internet and Society
W: http://cis-india.org | T: +91 80 40926283

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