Re: [ARSCLIST] the public Domain

[steven c <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Mwcpc6@xxxxxxx>
> In a message dated 1/21/2006 8:10:24 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> ericj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
>
> Finally, where older recordings are not available simply because they are
> not commercially viable, that doesn't really benefit anyone - the public
> can't buy it, and neither the record labels nor the musicians profit from
> their music.  So who is paying the price?
> *********
>
> Why was copyright registration and renewal dropped?  It seems like a small
> price to pay to separate the valued property from the material no one
wants to
> maintain in print.
>
Well, renewal applies to publishers' and writers' rights, not the
rights to as given sound recording (which is currently in force
until 2067 in the US!)...
>
> I see no problem with Disney keeping it's property for 1000 years as long
as
> they regularly make a positive move to claim it, as long as the vast bulk
of
> material that is laying around unclaimed in archives is available to the
> public.  Even real property (land) reverts to the public after a period of
> abandonment by failure to pay taxes.
>
> Mike Csontos
>