[FC-discuss] New free culture documentary in development

[Matthew J. Agnello]

It's definitely an important topic, and I'm glad you added it because  
I hadn't thought of it myself. How copyright operates internationally  
is already of supreme importance when talking about the Internet. Both  
'Steal This Film' and 'Good Copy, Bad Copy' touch on the subject, and  
it's a good idea for US citizens and policymakers to look at how other  
countries are experimenting with copyright law. I read a very  
interesting post on William Patry's blog on Israel's new copyright  
law[1]. He writes of it glowingly, and more than once he says how he  
wishes certain statutes were written into US law to make things more  
clear. It's obvious the rest of the world has been watching the US and  
has learned a few lessons.

About a week ago, Patry also mentioned another piece of interesting  
news that the WTO now allows the island-state of Antigua to circumvent  
US copyright law because the US illegally blocked access to their  
online gambling services.[2]

As the Internet becomes more accessible to everyone, copyright laws  
across borders will become one of the most important issues facing US  
and international economy, especially if IP really is the "oil of the  
21st century."

Best,
// Matt

[1] http://williampatry.blogspot.com/2008/01/israelis-new-copyright-law.html
[2] http://williampatry.blogspot.com/2007/12/delicious-irony-in-using-ip-as-trade.html
and
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/22/business/worldbusiness/22gambling.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin


----------
Matt Agnello
http://www.hungryfilmmaker.com
< matt.agnello at gmail.com >



On Jan 5, 2008, at 10:52 PM, Denver Gingerich wrote:

> On Jan 5, 2008 3:02 PM, Matthew J. Agnello <matt.agnello at gmail.com>  
> wrote:
> [...]
>> I've set up a variety of outlets for users to track and contribute  
>> to the
>> development of the project. Using Lessig's corruption wikinotes as an
>> example, I've set up a series of pages on my wiki for keeping track  
>> of
>> required reading, current events, people I should know about, etc.  
>> You can
>> find the portal at http://www.hungryfilmmaker.com/wiki/ 
>> Portal:Copycat. If
>> you'd like to contribute, please go to the wiki, create an account,  
>> and poke
>> around a bit.
>
> I've added a page on international copyright treaties to the Topics
> section.  Let me know if you have any questions about it.
>
>
> Since the wiki happened to omit information on international copyright
> treaties, but included a note on US copyright treaties, I'll talk a
> bit about that.  I am in no way picking on you specifically, Matt; it
> just so happens that I have time to expand on this now and your e-mail
> was the most recent one that brought it to mind.
>
> I find that it is often the case that discussions relating to
> copyright law (at least on FC-discuss and other lists I'm on) center
> around what US law says about a particular issue.  While these are
> great for people that live in the US, the discussions are not very
> useful for people that live in other countries.
>
> Although one may not be able to get into as much legal depth (since
> each country implements treaties differently), it may be much more
> useful in these discussions to talk about international copyright
> treaties such as the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the Berne Convention.
> These treaties are signed by most countries on the planet [1] so are
> quite relevant for most people.
>
> One can include notes on optional parts of the treaties that specific
> countries have implemented when discussing these treaties.  For
> example, you may wish to note when talking about the length of
> copyright terms that the Berne Convention states this is at least 50
> years for signing countries while the US has chosen to implement a
> longer term.
>
> Talking about international copyright treaties is not only useful for
> people in more countries, but it also promotes awareness of which laws
> are specific to certain countries and which laws are internationally
> recognized.
>
> Let me know if you have any questions or comments about this.  I'm
> always up for discussion.
>
> Denver
>
>
> 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_parties_to_international_copyright_treaties
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at freeculture.org
> http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss

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