Book People Archive

RE: Copyright extension



On Wed, 18 Jul 2001, Lion Kimbro <lion@[redacted]> wrote:
>   Eh? Pardon my rudeness, but this just sounds like nonsense and
>   anti-PD propaganda.

There is nothing anti-PD in my message.

>   I'm not a lawyer, but I've been paying attention.
>   If some country claims unilateral rights to all works ever written,
>   forever and ever, and you put up a page that violates their "copyright",
>   the U.S. will not hand you over, and lend jurisdiction to that other
>   country.

That is not what I said.  Here is what Attorney Stephen Fishman said
on page 20 in Chapter 17 in his book _The Public Domain_:

       In any event, it is possible that you could be sued
     in a foreign country for violating that country's
     copyright laws.  It might even be possible for you
     to be sued in the United States for violating the
     copyright laws of a foreign country.  Consider the
     following fictional example:

          EXAMPLE: Jim has his own website on
          which he places copies of public domain
          books.  Jim lives in California, his Web
          server is in California and his Internet
          access provider is in California.  Jim
          scans the short story collection _Dubliners_
          by James Joyce and places it on his website.
          _Dubliners_ is in the public domain in the
          U.S. because the copyright expired -- it was
          published in 1914 and the U.S. copyright for
          all works published before 1923 lasted a
          maximum of 75 years.  However, _Dubliners_
          is not in the public domain in the United
          Kingdom, where copyrights last for the life
          of the author plus 70 years (Joyce died in
          1941).  People who live in the United Kingdom
          can easily access Jim's website and download
          a copy of _Dubliners_.  Joyce's heirs sue
          Jim for copyright infringement in a British
          court.

Note the words "possible" and "fictional".  The above has not happened
but the possibility is still there.  For a better understanding, buy
a copy of the book or borrow a copy from your library and read the whole
section F in the same chapter.

None of the above is legal advice (with apology to Jonathan Bartlett).

Joseph Pietro Riolo
<riolo@[redacted]>