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

[informania@xxxxxxxxxxx]

50 years after publication date, the author/artist is generally dead,
his/her estate in the hands of friends, family or lawyers, who may be in any
country in the world, and who certainly cannot be guaranteed to know or
notice that they need to register in the US to retain their rights. The
Berne Convention, to which the US is a signatory, states "The enjoyment and
the exercise of these rights shall not be subject to any formality". As a
former Chief Executive of an authors' collecting society (the Authors
Licensing and Collecting Society, UK), I can confirm Robert Panzer's
experience with rightsholders, particularly in tracing and identifying
inheritors of rights.

Thus, I believe any introduction of a formal certification of copyright to
be a formality contrary to the Berne Convention and in practical terms most
likely to strip inheritors of rights of their inheritances.

Chris Zielinski
STP, CSI/EGB/WHO
Avenue Appia, CH-1211
Geneva, Switzerland
Tel: 004122-7914316 or mobile (UK) 0044797-10-45354