[ARSCLIST] FTAA/IP (was Re: [ARSCLIST] 21st Century Discographies)

[Jon Noring <jon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Steven C. Barr wrote:
> Steven Smolian:

>> So suppose the master site was offshore, just like some porn, not to
>> mention a considerble number of jobs?

> Actually, this is one of the things Jon Noring is considering! Note that
> "offshore" need only be across one of the Great Lakes, since Canada has a
> 50-year term for the copyright on sound recordings!

Yes, as does many other countries in Europe and elsewhere. Some
countries have 60 to 65 year copyright terms on sound recordings. Only
in the U.S. do we have these "perpetual" copyright-like protections
for pre-1972 sound recordings which won't be fixed until February 15,
2067. (This will be explained in an article I plan to soon publish
online.)

Technically, the earliest commercial sound recordings made in the U.S.,
in 1889, are still protected in the U.S. by State copyright and other
laws. When 2067 finally rolls around, these earliest sound recordings
will revert to the Public Domain (provided Title 17 is not further
amended to affect this.) That means those recordings will have been
given copyright-like protection in the U.S. for 178 years.

Fortunately Canada, the U.K. and many other countries have rational
and reasonable copyright terms on sound recordings. But this is
threatened by new treaties now being negotiated, such as the Free
Trade Area of the Americas, whose intellectual property chapter will
not only require all 34 member countries in the Western Hemisphere,
including Canada, to implement super-DMCA restrictions, but will
increase the terms for copyright protection of sound recordings to 95
years, apparently retroactively. If enacted, this will probably put
a stop to Canada hosting a "Project Gramophone", but not Europe. But
RIAA is lobbying hard for the rest of the world to conform to the 95
year "standard", and if FTAA passes with this onerous IP chapter,
then that will put more pressure on the rest of the world to follow
suit (right now only the U.S. has 95 year copyright terms for
post-1972 sound recordings.)

For further information on the FTAA/IP, refer to the IP Justice White
Paper at:

http://www.ipjustice.org/FTAA/whitepaper.shtml

A petition opposing the FTAA/IP chapter is found at:

http://www.ipjustice.org/FTAA/petition.shtml


Jon Noring