Quoting Mary-Beth Peters, the U.S. Register of Copyrights in a talk November 2, 2005, at the University of North Carolina Law School:
We've certainly lengthened the term [of copyright] perhaps -- I won't even say perhaps -- too long a term. I think it is too long. I think that was probably a big mistake.
Comment. This admission comes very late in the game. I'd love to see Congress shorten the term of copyright, but I know that the political obstacles are nearly insuperable. (These are the same political obstacles that make the length of the term of copyright into a ratchet that always goes up, never down.) But Peters' admission is nevertheless extraordinary and helpful. It shows that the U.S. Copyright Office sees encroachments on the public domain as harmful to all of us, even if helpful to one wealthy industry. It shows that the boneheaded Bono extension of 1998 might be the last. It shows that the Copyright Office might take a more balanced approach to other large copyright issues in the future, as it recently did with its guidelines on orphan works.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 2/22/2006 10:08:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
