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

[Pranesh Prakash]

Dear all,
I am well aware that there are other issues such as that of copyright
over works by the government and public undertakings.  We have raised
this issue in our analysis[1] as well as our formal submission to the
Parliamentary Standing Committee.[2]

However, it is one thing to get something that is good (broad exception
for government works / or even better: making government works public
domain) which is not even on the table, and preventing an impending
harm: decrease of the public domain in terms of Indian photographs.  The
first is a longer term goal than the second.

Copyright term of photographs is going to increase if folks don't stand
up against it.

Regards,
Pranesh

 [1]: Analysis: http://goo.gl/Iv69r
 [2]: Civil Society submission: http://goo.gl/9Ws3E / Analysis of
Standing Committee's report: http://goo.gl/Fs5WM

On Saturday 18 June 2011 06:40 PM, wheredevelsdare at hotmail.com wrote:
> 
> Very contentious issue Pranesh. The issue is not only this - but also to insure that any Indian government works be in public domain as well as that of a Public Servant when on duty (like in the US - after all it is OUR govenment and OUR money spent hiring that Public Servant!).
>  
> 
> Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2011 18:04:07 +0200
> From: pranesh at cis-india.org
> To: wikimediaindia-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> CC: aprabhala at gmail.com; sunil at cis-india.org
> Subject: [Wikimediaindia-l] Massive increase in copyright term for photographs
> 
> 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
>  
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Pranesh Prakash
Programme Manager
Centre for Internet and Society
W: http://cis-india.org | T: +91 80 40926283

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