RE: Panzer's posting on the Public Domain Enhancement Act

["Robert Panzer" <rpanzer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In response to Ms. Russell:
I think the fact that relatively few artists register or renew their works
speaks for itself in the difficulty of registering.  This is particularly so
for many artists and photographers who produce numerous works each year.
The copyright value for a given work of art, by the vast majority of
artists, is very little.  It is difficult to motivate many artists to
register each work after they create it, as they typically see little if no
return on licensing until they have created many works over many years and
begin to continually license these images.  No one work is worth very much
and no single license is likely to reap big money.  It is the cumulative
effect of many licenses for many works over a period of time.  For other
creative industries, such as book publishing, copyright is at the core of
the value of the work, and serious money, if it is going to be seen,
typically occurs relatively soon after publication.  And both the author and
publisher stand to reap the rewards.   This is the type of incentive that
encourages registration.  As to simple forms - I just don't imagine that the
government is capable of producing such a thing.
The "publication"  issue is most relevant to works created prior to the 1976
act, when copyright began at time of publication and ran anywhere from 28 to
95 years after publication date.
Sincerely,

Robert Panzer
VAGA (Visual Artists and Galleries Association, Inc.)
350 Fifth Avenue
Suite 2820
New York, NY  10118
Tel: 212 736 6666
Fax: 212 736 6767
rpanzer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx




-----Original Message-----
From:	Carrie Russell [mailto:crussell@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent:	Thursday, July 03, 2003 12:18 PM
To:	digital-copyright@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx;
digital-copyright-digest-help@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject:	Re: Panzer's posting on the Public Domain Enhancement Act

Mr. Panzer offers a different perspective on how the proposed public domain
legislation will negatively impact artists. (see below) But please explain
to me why it would be harder for an artist to complete a renewal form than
it would be for a major copyright aggregator/company?
Why would this be so onerous? Regular ol' people complete copyright
registration forms all of the time, so what's the big deal? According to the
legislation, the renewal forms are going to be easy to complete and widely
available on the Web.
I am also confused about the "publication" concern.  If the copyright term
is life of the author plus 70 years, wouldn't the artist's heirs know the
date that their relative died and wouldn't they be able to add 50 to that
date to know when they should file a renewal?  What am I missing here?