[sword-devel] Copyright Law

[Don A. Elbourne Jr.]

I have been following this for several years. I am sure there are many
commentaries and religious works that would fall into this window if Eldred
wins the case, but are their any Bible translations that would be affected
either now or in the near future?

Don A. Elbourne Jr.
http://elbourne.org



----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Little" <chrislit@chiasma.org>
To: <sword-devel@crosswire.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2002 11:05 PM
Subject: Re: [sword-devel] Copyright Law


>
> Yes, this appeal, Eldred vs. Ashcroft, could have very good effects, if
> the good guys (Eldred) win.  I would ask that you guys all pray for a good
> outcome of this suit.
>
> <explanation--if you already understand the case, you can stop reading>
> Eldred vs. Ashcroft seeks to overturn the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term
> Extension Act aka Mickey Mouse Copyright Act.  That copyright act extended
> copyrights from life of author plus 50 years to life of author plus 70
> years, plus it worked retroactively on already published works.  (This
> final fact was very important to Disney, who largely paid for the law,
> hence its nickname.)  The problem is, it's entirely unconstitutional.  The
> Constitution gave copyrights of 14 years (regardless of author's time of
> death) in order to encourage the creation of new works by granting a
> time-limited monopoly.  However, Congress extended copyright 11 times in
> the last century because it serves corporate interests, despite the fact
> that NO creation of new works would be encouraged by the copyright
> extensions (except plausibly in cases of corporate authorship).  By
> applying the law retroactively, works that had been in the public domain
> for less than 20 years were instantaneously back under copyright.  Eldred
> runs an internet achive of texts that had to remove such works, so he
> began this lawsuit.  One of the statistics that they point out is that in
> 1930, over 10,000 books were published, only 174 of which are still in
> print.  Were it not for this law, internet archives could put the other
> 9000+ works on the web.
>
> So, in conclusion.... pray. :)
>
> --Chris
>
> On Tue, 19 Feb 2002, Jacob Daniel wrote:
>
> > FYI, there is a discussion on slashdot on a copyright case that
> > has been accepted by the Supreme Court.  I wonder what the
> > effects would be on the works that The Sword Project can publish.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Jacob
> >
>
>