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

[Edward Barrow <edward@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I must admit that I paid only cursory attention to the draft Act but I had 
the impression that certification was
only meant to apply to the last 20 years of the term, beyond the Berne 
minimum, so I think one could argue that
it isn't incompatible.

I have much more difficulty with the existing registration requirement in 
the US. Since the only redress available to the holder of an unregistered 
copyright is simple damages, and given the high cost of litigation, 
effective protection is denied to anyone who doesn't register. I don't 
believe that the present two-tier system is compatible with Berne.

Edward Barrow
New Media Copyright Consultant
http://www.copyweb.co.uk/
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On Thursday, July 10, 2003 7:27 AM, informania@xxxxxxxxxxx 
[SMTP:informania@xxxxxxxxxxx] wrote:
> 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