In a conversation on the Cyberia-L email list, CIS Fellow Chris Sprigman argues that Judge Posner's suggested "fix" for the copyright term extension problem is flawed because it may not pass muster under the Berne Convention, and, by extension, the TRIPS accord. So in a forthcoming issue of the Stanford Law Review, Sprigman will propose his own solution: restoring to copyright law the sort of formalities that copyright holders like Ludlow Music, Inc. have occasionally messed up.
An advance copy of Sprigman's piece is available [PDF] @ the CIS weblog. I haven't read it yet, but something tells me Joe Gratz has. Perhaps he'd be kind enough to offer us an executive summary?
Category: Laws and Regulations
"In these ten songs you will hear a lot of music of a lot of races. Songs of every color. Every people loves and copies the songs and the music, the ideas, the customs, of all the other races."
"Songs like these soak into every wall, *all, factory, every hull of every ship, every hammer coming down on every anvil, every seed falling down into every row, every hand moving *** dust rag, a wheel, a lever, a dial, a handle, a button push ***"
From Woody Guthrie's introduction to his 1946 (now public domain) pamphlet that contains the sheet music to This Land.