[Wikipedia-l] Re: Reclaim the Public Domain Petition

[Ilya N]

wow, over 12,000 signatures!

jansson at gmx.net wrote:
> "jansson at gmx.net" sends you the enclosed page from one of the Artifice web sites:
> 
>    http://www.PetitionOnline.com/eldred/petition.html
> 
>     **    **    **
> 
> Personal comments from "jansson@":
> 
> Everybody who has ever uploaded a puplic domain image or used the old Britannica should put Wikipedia in the "Something I Created Using Public Domain" field.
> 
> Kurt
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> <http://www.PetitionOnline.com/petition.html>
>  
> *Reclaim the Public Domain*
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
>  
> 
> View Current Signatures 
> <http://www.PetitionOnline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?eldred>   -   Sign 
> the Petition <petition-sign.html>
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
>     To:  Members of the United States Congress
> 
>     We, the undersigned, while believing in the importance of copyright,
>     also believe in the importance of the public domain. We believe the
>     public domain is crucial to the spread of knowledge and culture, and
>     crucial in assuring access to our past. We therefore write to
>     petition you to reconsider major changes that you have made to the
>     copyright system. These changes unnecessarily threaten the public
>     domain without any corresponding benefit to copyright holders.
> 
>     In 1998, Congress passed the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act
>     (CTEA). That Act extended the term of all existing copyrights by 20
>     years. But as Justice Breyer calculated, only 2% of the work
>     copyrighted during the initial 20 years affected by this statute has
>     any continuing commercial value at all. The balance has disappeared
>     from the commercial marketplace, and, we fear, could disappear from
>     our culture generally.
> 
>     For example: The vast majority of film created during the 1920s and
>     1930s is not commercially available. Because of the CTEA, much of it
>     remains under copyright. Yet because it is often impossible to track
>     down the copyright owners for these films, commercial and
>     noncommercial preservationist and distributors cannot safely restore
>     and distribute these films. And because these films were made from
>     nitrate-based stock, by the time the copyright to these films
>     expire, most of them will have dissolved.
> 
>     The same is true with many other copyrighted works that are no
>     longer commercially available. Though the Internet could facilitate
>     the distribution of this work if the copyright owners could be
>     identified, the costs of locating these copyright owners is wildly
>     prohibitive. Schools and libraries are thus denied access to works
>     that otherwise could be made available at a very low cost.
> 
>     Such burdens on access to work that has no continuing commercial
>     value serves no legitimate copyright purpose. It certainly does not
>     "promote the Progress of Science" as the Constitution requires. We
>     therefore ask Congress to consider changes to the current regime
>     that would free unused content from continued regulation, while
>     respecting the rights of existing copyright owners.
> 
>     One solution in particular that we ask Congress to consider is the
>     Public Domain Enhancement Act. See http://eldred.cc
>     <http://eldred.cc> This statute would require American copyright
>     owners to pay a very low fee (for example, $1) fifty years after a
>     copyrighted work was published. If the owner pays the fee, the
>     copyright will continue for whatever duration Congress sets. But if
>     the copyright is not worth even $1 to the owner, then we believe the
>     work should pass into the public domain.
> 
>     This legislation would strengthen the public domain without
>     burdening copyright owners. It would also help clarify rights over
>     copyrighted material, which in turn would enable reuse of that
>     material. The law could thus help restore balance to the protection
>     of copyright, and support the public domain.
> 
>     We therefore call upon Congress to introduce this legislation, and
>     to hold hearings on the benefits that it might have to reviving a
>     vibrant public domain.
> 
>     When technologists have given us a tool that could spread knowledge
>     universally, we should not allow the law to get in the way. The law
>     does so now. This Congress should change it.
> 
>     Sincerely,
> 
>     The Undersigned
>     <http://www.PetitionOnline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?eldred>
> 
> View Current Signatures 
> <http://www.PetitionOnline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?eldred>
>  
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
>  
> 
>     The Reclaim the Public Domain <petition.html> Petition to Members of
>     the United States Congress was *created by
>     </cgi-bin/mlk?http://eldred.cc> and written by Lauren Gelman
>     <mailto:gelman at law.stanford.edu>*.  This
>     petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com
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