There are also all sorts of tricks copyright holders use to prevent their product from goin public domain. Turner managed to essentially get It's A Wonderful Life out of the public domain by re-copyrighting the underlying music used in the film. Thus although the film itself had lapsed and was not renewed because the underlying music was copyright and required permission from Turner to use it, the film became protected again. It's nothing new. Prokofiev didn't want his ballet scores from becoming public domain so he added a few notes here and there to his scores in the 1930s and 1940s and managed to somehow claim a new version of the score which was published by Schmirer's Music. Hence the start date of the copyright began anew on most of his widely played ballet scores. FRANC
-----Original Message----- From: MoPo List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Richard Halegua Comic Art Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2008 7:21 PM To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU Subject: Re: [MOPO] McCain Ad Featuring The Ten Commadments At 10:34 AM 8/24/2008, CK MacLeod wrote: Interesting observations, Rich. I always enjoy getting the benefit of your experience in copyright-related issues. (BTW, on that note, would you agree with me that Ron's interpretation of First Sale is ill-founded in the case of "stolen" goods?) Concerning posters etc. there is a Federal law & there are state laws concerning theft of property. In New York there is an art & antiquities law that concerns theft. If you are the victim of a theft of a Rembrandt painting in 1971, however because the painting was in your basement and you haven't been down there since 1965 and this year you discover it is missing, the clock on Statute of Limitations does not start running until you discover the theft and then the 5 year statute begins. So being stolen in 1971 doesn't mean anything necessarily. Furthermore, you can keep the statute alive past 5 years as long as you can prove that you are continuing to pursue the return of the painting. That can entail just a single letter for instance to a gallery owner asking if he has been able to track the painting just one time a year. The law constitutes that as an activity on your part to retrieve the art and when or if it does come back up. However, by that law, if you discover the theft, never report it and never pursue it's return, you could be relenquishing any claim to the art in the future.. It's called "abandonment of property" So by that standard, the Producers of movie posters for instance are most likely abandoning their property through inaction Also, copyright has become a very convoluted situation since the many revisals of copyright law by Congress during the past 30 years There is quite a bit of material that had been in the public domain under old law that has been recaptured due to newer laws. Disney & Universal are serious beneficiaries of this. There is a whole segment of Disney material in print & on film that was recaptured and under old copyright law, all of the Universal Horrors would have fallen into PD years ago had Congress - ushered by and lobbied by Disney for one and many corps otherwise - not taken the laws under review & extended copyright protections. For instance, Frankenstein would have been PD in 1988 (28+28 years), but now won't be PD until sometime between 2015 & 2020 which is an extension of 30 years +/- from original law which stood for more than 200 years. >From the public's view, it is an ill-focused waste of Congress's time. But it follows the philosophy of government to protect corporations from being affected by the same benefits they themselves have benefited from. You don't think that any publisher pays royalties to the Mark Twain or Shakespeare estates do you?? Or that Disney pays anything to the Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm family for Snow White or that Universal paid one penny to the estate of Mary Shelley in 1931, and yet these companies have made 100s of millions of dollars off the backs of these people. I'm waiting for these companies and Congress to create new law yet which would entail permanent copyright status for all corporations until the end of time, even as these companies use material - for which they will continue to pay nothing - from people who have no such protections. Keep in mind that one thing that happens - and Disney being one of the most benefited - is that soon before something is to go PD, these companies lobby again for a lengthier time period of copyright protection and because they can afford to pay tens of millions to lobby the lawmakers - while smaller entities, including individuals cannot afford the same and are left out in the cold. This is how the copyright laws have been re-written every few years since 1978 extending further and further protections to those who can afford to lobby Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
