Reclaim the Rule of the Shorter Term

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When 17 U.S.C. 104(c) does not consider the Berne Convention superior to the American law, it reads: "Any rights in a work eligible for protection under this title that derive from this title, ......, shall not be expanded or reduced by virtue of, or in reliance upon, the provisions of the Berne Convention, or the adherence of the United States thereto." When 17 U.S.C. 104A since January 1, 1996 started automatic copyright restoration in many works created or published outside the United States, it granted American copyright term without honoring the rule of the shorter term provided in Article 7.8 of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. These would make certain works published outside the USA copyrighted in the USA even if their copyrights in their source countries have expired earlier. When the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 added 20 years of copyright term, those non-American works could remained copyrighted in the USA for even longer term.

There are many works whose copyright holders can no longer be easily contacted. These works are now known as orphan works. Whilst they continue to be legally copyrighted even if their commercial values have been abandoned, the public cannot legally reuse them other than claiming fair use. These problems are impeding cultural developments.

As the server of various Wikimedia projects is physically located in Florida, USA, all users of these projects are subject to Title 17 of the United States Code concerning copyright. Without honoring the rule of the shorter term provided in Article 7.8 of the Berne Convention to release non-American works into the public domain when their copyrights expire in their source countries, Wikimedia websites users are unfairly denied the rights to legally contribute information that is free to use in their home countries. This is why we, the undersigned users and supporters of various Wikimedia projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikinews, Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikiversity, and Wikimedia Commons, are writing to you.

Section 8 of Article I of the United States Constitution gives the Congress the power to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries. As we see no progress of science and useful arts by denying the rule of the shorter term and extending the copyright term without regard to orphan works, we would like to kindly ask the Congress to consider some major changes to the USA Copyright Act.

First, we would like to kindly ask the Congress to amend Title 17, United States Code, Sections 104(c) and 104A to honor the rule of the shorter term provided in Article 7.8 of the Berne Convention, so once the copyright of a work published outside the USA expires in its source country, its copyright also expires in the USA. The European Union, a major trading partner of the USA, and many other countries and areas, have honored the rule of the shorter term, so we see no more good reasons for the USA to stay out of this important rule.

Second, we would like to kindly ask the Congress to reintroduce and reconsider the Public Domain Enhancement Act. (Please see http://eldred.cc/ .) This Act, first introduced as House Bill 2601 for the United States 108th Congress and reintroduced as House Bill 2408 for the 109th Congress, would require American copyright owners to pay a very low fee such as one US dollar per work fifty years after publishing works in the USA and ten years thereafter to renew their copyrights until the end of the copyright term. Paying to register copyright renewals would allow the public to identify copyright owners to seek permission, but failure to pay such a low fee would release the orphan works into the public domain at least in the USA.

To truly promote the progress of science and useful arts, copyright protection and public domain must be balanced. As the American non-acceptance of the rule of the shorter term and copyright extension are now in the way of the progress of cultural development, science and useful arts, please consider these important suggestions. Thank you.

257 Signatures

  • Tom
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Justin J
    • Comments
    • American non-acceptance of the rule of the shorter term plus copyright extension without regard to orphan works equal to cultural impediment.
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • New York State, USA
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Yann F
  • Samuli L
    • Comments
    • В
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • Finland, Turku
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Jennifer Z
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • St. Louis, MO USA
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • James S
    • Comments
    • В
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • Joelton, Tennessee 37080 United States
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Klaus S
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • Aachen, Germany
  • Jonathan G
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Jonathan G
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Martin S
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Jцrgens M
  • Adam B
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • Norwich, CT
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Sven H
    • Comments
    • volunteer in German Wikipedia and Wikisource, and in Wikimedia Commons
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • Germany
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Christoph H
    • Comments
    • В
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • Erfurt, 99084, Germany
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Andrea B
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • Germany
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Fred S
    • Comments
    • Our American culture needs sensible, unambiguous copyright reform. Right now the confusion and doubt over when a work is in the public domain severely restricts cultural borrowing from the public domain. I am a classical musician, and I have to go through great lengths to find works that are _definately_ out of copyright to use as source material.
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • Boston, MA 02130
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Nicole T
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • Ottawa, KS 66067 USA
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Jonathan K
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • North Haven, CT, 06473
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Dial H
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Maciej s
    • Comments
    • В
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • Nysa, Poland
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Sean W
    • Comments
    • I'm a administrator at the English Wikipedia, and fair use is a plague.
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Matthew I
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • Dongying, Shandong, 257000, P.R.C.
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Jonathan C
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • Virginia, USA
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Luiz A
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Asahiko M
    • Comments
    • Copyrights exist to protect the creators and enhance cultural development. The US rule is too much and is rather setting back cultural development.
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Connor L
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • Seattle, WA 98122 USA
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Stephen B
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    • South Carolina
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Pedro
  • Marcos C
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • Leipzig, Germany
  • Lembit S
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • John M
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • B. Tong M
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • The Netherlands
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • ali muhammad w
    • Comments
    • subject
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • pakistan
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Nikolay Y
    • Comments
    • Seniour software developer
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • Moscow, Russia
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Андрей
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • Russia
  • Shi Z
    • Comments
    • В
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • Beijing, China
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Sean R
    • Comments
    • I don't see why the U.S. should enforce copyright law if the copyright of the source country is expired. It is especially a hindrance to administrators like me.
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • В
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Marco C
    • Comments
    • В
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    • UK
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • kf s
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • wolfgang h
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • United Kingdom
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Richard J. H
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    • Poplar Grove, IL 60165
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Ellery C
  • Potyng K
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • Russia
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Simon S
  • Santiago E Piaggio N
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • Buenos Aires, C1053ACB, Argentina
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Alex S.H. L
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Joshua L
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • Glasgow, Scotland
  • Mingli Y
    • Comments
    • aka Mountain in Wikipedia
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • Shanghai
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • David S
    • City, state/province, post code, country
    • United States
    • United States voter?
    • No
  • Inga S
    • United States voter?
    • No