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

[Gautam John]

Pranesh:

Do you have a form letter we could use, please?

Something that we could each sign, individually, and send? To whom? By when?

Thank you.

Best,

Gautam
________
http://social.prathambooks.org/




On 18 June 2011 23:05, Pranesh Prakash <pranesh at cis-india.org> wrote:
> 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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