[Diggers350] 'The Value of Voluntary Simplicity', etc

[Paul Mobbs]

On Saturday, January 15, 2011 11:37:58 pm you wrote:
> What is the copyright situation?

Far as I know it's out of copyright. In the USA any work published before 1992 
would have its copyright lapse after 28 years unless formally registered; even 
if registered, copyright would only last 56 years (the period set in the 1909 
Act, applicable when this was written) -- meaning it lapsed in 1992. That's 
well before the 'Sonny Bonny' legislation (a.k.a "Mickey Mouse Protection 
Act", because Disney basically funded Sonny Bono to get the law through to 
prevent mickey Mouse falling into the public domain) came into force in 2003 
and extended everything.

People are getting jumpy at the moment because, as part of the legal action 
againt Google scanning books, the copyright mafia in the USA are trying to 
impose a settlement that effectively cedes all power over all creative works to 
the intellectual property lobby (the decision in that case is well overdue 
becuase they have to sort out if it offends the US constitution in relation to 
free expression/anti-trust law).

It's only in recent years that the intellectual property extortion mafia have 
changed the law so that all works published after 1992 automatically get 70 
years. But, as far as I can see, I'm sharing this work to allows its message 
to be widely read and acted upon. Gregg died in 1974; even so I would think 
that he'd not object to his message being spread to fulfil the purposes for 
which it was created today. Consequently, I'd quite happily email this around 
even if I knew it was still in copyright!

Intellectual property is, in terms of history, the ultimate example of "the 
cop in your head". I don't apply blanket copyright restrictions to the stuff I 
write (see the FRAW web site, everything's open licensed; even my book 'Energy 
Beyond Oil' is open licensed!). The only way we're going to beat this bullshit 
intellectual repression is to ignore it and carry on regardless -- or open 
license stuff as I do in order to avoid confusion.


P.

-- 

.

"We are not for names, nor men, nor titles of Government,
nor are we for this party nor against the other but we are
for justice and mercy and truth and peace and true freedom,
that these may be exalted in our nation, and that goodness,
righteousness, meekness, temperance, peace and unity with
God, and with one another, that these things may abound."
(Edward Burrough, 1659 - from 'Quaker Faith and Practice')

Paul's book, "Energy Beyond Oil", is out now!
For details see http://www.fraw.org.uk/mei/ebo/

Read my 'essay' weblog, "Ecolonomics", at:
http://www.fraw.org.uk/mei/ecolonomics/

Paul Mobbs, Mobbs' Environmental Investigations
3 Grosvenor Road, Banbury OX16 5HN, England
tel./fax (+44/0)1295 261864
email - mobbsey at gn.apc.org
website - http://www.fraw.org.uk/mei/index.shtml
public key - http://www.fraw.org.uk/mei/mobbsey-2011.asc

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