http://gizmodo.com/5877740/supreme-court-gives-the-go-ahead-for-re+copyrighting-public-domain-works

http://gizmodo.com/5877740/supreme-court-gives-the-go-ahead-for-re+copyrighting-public-domain-works

http://gizmodo.com/5877740/supreme-court-gives-the-go-ahead-for-re+copyrighting-public-domain-works

So... who do people have to pay license fees to if the original creators are dead?

Their heirs

http://gizmodo.com/5877740/supreme-court-gives-the-go-ahead-for-re+copyrighting-public-domain-works

Their heirs

So the US now have the right to repossess what is pretty much public property?

From my reading of the decision, that's not at all what's happening.

Essentially since the beginning of the country, American citizens and corporations have been free to ignore the copyrights of most foreign countries largely because the US has had far more to gain by infringing than they had to gain by having their works protected in other countries. I don't know if it's fair to say these works were ever effectively in the public domain, rather, they were just never granted protection by the US government. That's a nice way to say we were a nation of pirates when it comes to copyright.
When the 1990s rolled around and the WTO was formed, the US had to start playing ball on pain of getting nailed with tariffs. So we had to start offering the same protection to foreign copyrights that we do to our own (at least to Berne signatories).

So I don't know if it's fair to call this a "re-designation" since essentially there was no designation to begin with. And it's certainly not retroactive because it offers no opportunity to collect on any infringing use that happened before the law was passed.


Well technically, these works have been consistently stolen from the foreign copyright holders by the American people. These were never protected and then had their terms lapse. In fact, this law only allows for protection for the remainder of any terms that would still be in effect as if we had been protecting them all along. So some of these will fall back into the public domain within a few years.
It's pretty hard to state with a straight face that these are now being stolen back from the American public by the copyright owners.


I don't see any evidence that the American public "owned" any of these works, and the court agrees. The American public was free to use these works only because the American government refused to enforce the valid copyright terms of foreign countries. That doesn't in and of itself make a work a part of the public domain.

Personally I thing the copyright system is deeply broken and needs real reform, but it would be massively hypocritical for the US to be badgering China to enforce US copyrights while at the same time ignoring the copyrights of other nations itself. If we expect any kind of protection for US works, we have to offer commensurate protection to other nations.

If the law was implemented as is. I could sue you if you quoted me without my permission.

[censored] this country, I am moving into the woods. Who wants to build a town with me?

As long as there's a strip club, a bar, and wifi, I'm down.

It isn't just the acts themselves that are frightening me. It's the fact that a lot of people that I know who use the Internet, especially "older" people, have no idea what it does, and don't understand or want to understand it. I understand that a great number of people do, and they are against it. But the fact that even my younger brother, who would rather claim he "doesn't use the Internet much anyway," than research what it is and voice himself, makes me uncomfortable.

It's things like this that make me want to scream revolution even louder. If the men and women in Congress aren't capable of staying relevant, and will make blind decisions such as this, saying "I'm not a nerd" instead of learning, then they shouldn't be in the positions they're in. They really don't deserve it in my eyes.

I hope this all goes away, soon. Makes me miss the (relatively speaking) quieter days of the 'net, before it boomed into what it is now.

Welcome to the forums! I wish my first post was this interesting, sadly I think it was regarding a glitch in Morrowind.

To the point, I agree completely! There's this notion that the internet isn't worth fighting for because it's not real, so to speak. However, this notion doesn't apply to nations, or governments, or other things that are just as real as the internet. I'm sure if we said "well, we're renaming the United States of America to the Republic of North America" there would be a massive uproar, despite this being far, far more trivial than what the SOPA/PIPA would do to the internet. It's a double standard that, should people continue to feel this way, will end up destroying the most important advancement since... I want to say, computers.

Thanks for the welcome! To be fair, I've been around since 2002, but my old account seems to have been deactivated. I think many people's first posts pre-Oblivion were regarding glitches in Morrowind. Heck, think even my first post was, too.

But on topic: the Internet is very real, and it will be a part of this world for as long as we have the energy resources to maintain it. Wonderful things can come of it, and so can terrible things, but treating every one who uses it as a criminal is just as wrong as treating everyone who walks their dog as a criminal, just because some people won't scoop up the poop. Crude anology, but fitting, I suppose, for the topic.

And you're right. Rupturing traditional symbolism seems to upset the majority of people far more than practical issues with truly damaging consequences. Republic of America, United States of America, That Country Between Mexico and Canada, New Europe ... I don't care what my country is called. But if the country I live in wants to watch my every move and forbid me the freedom to pursue my interests as I see fit when they pose no direct threat to anyone anywhere, it's not a country I feel should be defended. No doubt the citizens of the United States enjoy a safer and easier life than most in the world, but that security and that ease of living is beginning to come at too great a cost: and I mean that monetarily and metaphorically.

The closer any country drifts to a 1984-esque society the scared-er I get... Especially a country like the United-States.

At least when it's clearly dictatorial the people instantly rise up, it's the countries that try to convince a country that they are helping them by removing rights that are truly dangerous.

It's easy to stab someone in the back when you've convinced them you're a friend. I find most conspiracy theories laughable, but honestly, when my dear family is seemingly OK with having their rights and freedoms stripped away so they can be "safe", I must wonder.

"Safe" from what? It's not like piracy directly causes them harm. Some people baffle me...

Really, they (governments) should be more focused on slightly more important issues than piracy. Nothing short of blatant disregard of privacy will ever solve piracy. I'm not saying they shouldn't fight against it (they should) but these bills won't solve anything piracy related. All they'll do is aggravate people and screw over people who don't pirate.

Okay, now the government is just going out of their way to tick off most of the country.

Most of the world, actually.


SOPA isn't even here yet and things are already getting ridiculous.

I'm really annoyed that Megaupload is down. Many modders for games that didn't have their own dedicated mod site like Nexus used it for hosting mods, so a ton of mods for all sorts of games are probably gone forever now.