SEIV is being Pirated

[Baron Munchausen]

It's even worse than that, actually. Copyright has become a virtual 'entitlement' for authors and artists families. It's now been extended to 50 years after the death of the author. The copyright on Sherlock Holmes only ran out a few years ago, for example. (Hmm, my reference says Arthur Conan Doyle died in 1930... which would mean the copyright ran out in 1980. I'd swear it was only a few years ago I heard the story about the copyright expiring on Sherlock Holmes. Must be getting old and misremembering things... ) The copyright on Tolkien's works will run until 2023 at least since he died in 1973. Joseph Heller just died Last year if I recall correctly (my reference isn't new enough to list it) so the copyrights on Yossarian and Milo Minderbinder and associates will run until 2050.

[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 25 August 2001).]

[BeeDee10]

For more detailed information on copyright as it currently exists, see the FAQ at the following address: http://web.mit.edu/cwis/copyright/faq.html

It looks pretty good to me. However, since the law is mutable and life+50 is a _long_ time, don't make any plans based on the assumption that you can just wait until 2070 or thereabouts (depending on when Aaron dies) to start distributing your own copies of SEIV. The duration of copyright protection has been steadily lengthened in recent years, thanks in large part to intensive lobbying by wealthy hollywood interests who do not want their old characters and movies to start entering the public domain (see "Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act", http://www.law.asu.edu/HomePages/Kar...ightExtension/).
Copyright protection originally Lasted a _maximum_ of 28 years. I think rolling back the duration to something in that ballpark would help restore a great deal of respect for copyright as well as vastly enriching the public domain. But I guess this is somewhat off-topic for an SEIV forum, and so I will shut up now.



[This message has been edited by BeeDee10 (edited 25 August 2001).]

[tesco samoa]

thats good reading if your fall under american copyright laws. I was thinking along the line that copyright laws should be one and the same planet wide.

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[dmm]

The real rip-off of pirating software is that most software only has a useful lifetime of about 5 years. So 50 years of copyright protection is meaningless. Therefore, it is much more of a crime to pirate software than books. If someone pirates a book, the copyright owners have 50 years to get a return on their investment from law-abiding citizens. Not so with software! (Although, come to think of it, many books also have a short lifetime, such as celeb bios and computer "how-to"s. Maybe there ought to be different categories of copyrights, and short-term copyrights should be savagely enforced.)

[tesco samoa]

All copyright is enforced. For if you do not enforce it you might lose it. Look at all the cases flying around with humour or satire of products. Like the fordsucks or any boardgames that have been reproduced as jokes.

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[dmm]

quote:

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Originally posted by tesco samoa:
All copyright is enforced. For if you do not enforce it you might lose it.

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What I meant was that someone could choose a 5-year copyright, which would have draconian penalties, or they could choose the 50-year copyright, which would have slap-on-the-wrist penalties (except for heinous offenders). Because not even MS cares if you pirate Win3.0 at this point (they've made their money and moved on), whereas the owners of a classic novel get their return on investment over the long term.

[BeeDee10]

quote:

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Originally posted by tesco samoa:
All copyright is enforced. For if you do not enforce it you might lose it.

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This is simply false, read the FAQ I posted the URL for downthread. _Trademarks_ have the "defend it or lose it" feature, but not copyright. It is possible to ignore some copyright violations and prosecute others, or even ignore _all_ copyright violations, and still retain copyright.