On Oct 23, 2007, at 7:09 PM, John Howell wrote:
In point of fact, through international treaties that may or may not have been a good idea, the European paradigm has been forced on the U.S. Trying to look at it objectively, I don't see either case as being especially desirable.
If I were in charge of copyright policy in America, I would be happy to have U.S. law enforce European copyrights on any work published only in Europe, if that is what our European friends desire of us. But if any multinational publisher chooses to publish in the United States, those works will be subject to U.S. law.
Our copyright terms and conditions should be set at whatever level we estimate will maximize the promotion of useful arts and sciences. Prosperity of American publishers may well be a factor in that determination, but it is only a factor, not the goal itself.
If some European governments prefer to set terms which are geared more toward enriching their local publishers, at the cost of less literature and music available to the public, so be it. But that is no reason for us to impoverish our own public in the name of staying globally competitive.
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