Most effective way to fight for shorter copyright terms?
November 29, 2018 6:25 AM Subscribe
I strongly believe that copyright terms should be shorter, and I want to do something to encourage a return to the more reasonable copyright terms of the past. However, given that copyright terms are largely dictated by international trade agreements, activism on this problem seems futile. What can I do that won't be just a waste of time and/or money?
Some context: I live in Canada, which recently agreed to update its copyright laws to match the USA as part of the USMCA. While my primary interest is Canadian copyright law, I would also be glad to work on shifting copyright law in the States, as it has such a huge influence on international copyright agreements.
Some context: I live in Canada, which recently agreed to update its copyright laws to match the USA as part of the USMCA. While my primary interest is Canadian copyright law, I would also be glad to work on shifting copyright law in the States, as it has such a huge influence on international copyright agreements.
Best answer: Well, I quit my job, spent 3 years in law school, and articled in one of the legislative policy groups that handles Copyright Law in Canada, but that might be more of a commitment than you are willing to make to the cause.
I've moved on from that position into a policy role in a different area of the law, but I can offer up some general thoughts:
Government is responsive to stakeholders. Stakeholders can be industry groups, trade unions, public interest organizations, academics, etc. Private citizens are also stakeholders but opinions that have academic or industry muscle and resources behind them are louder and easier to hear. Stakeholders include organizations like CIPPIC which advocate for positions that you likely agree with.
Because, as you noted, copyright term extension is largely driven through trade negotiations you might also be interested in volunteering with or donating to organizations that are accredited observers at the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Depending on your background and particular interest in Copyright, you might also search for opportunities to work within organizations that currently advocate for copyright extensions to see if you can build the necessary consensus to flip their position or get them to tone down their support for extension. If you work in a creative industry, acting as a voice within your own union / trade association against the default support for copyright extension might be more powerful than adding your voice to a chorus of like-minded voices in an anti-copyright organization.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:32 AM on November 29, 2018 [7 favorites]
I've moved on from that position into a policy role in a different area of the law, but I can offer up some general thoughts:
Government is responsive to stakeholders. Stakeholders can be industry groups, trade unions, public interest organizations, academics, etc. Private citizens are also stakeholders but opinions that have academic or industry muscle and resources behind them are louder and easier to hear. Stakeholders include organizations like CIPPIC which advocate for positions that you likely agree with.
Because, as you noted, copyright term extension is largely driven through trade negotiations you might also be interested in volunteering with or donating to organizations that are accredited observers at the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Depending on your background and particular interest in Copyright, you might also search for opportunities to work within organizations that currently advocate for copyright extensions to see if you can build the necessary consensus to flip their position or get them to tone down their support for extension. If you work in a creative industry, acting as a voice within your own union / trade association against the default support for copyright extension might be more powerful than adding your voice to a chorus of like-minded voices in an anti-copyright organization.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:32 AM on November 29, 2018 [7 favorites]
How about you mount a Russian-style subversive propaganda campaign to try to get young wealthy people to adopt a custom of acquiring copyright to a work and re-releasing the work under a Creative Commons license or into the public domain, as a noble or virtuous or philanthropic act exclusively available to wealthy people which is superior to actually being creative, and which they compete with each other to accomplish austentatiously: who can buy and release the most famous or acclaimed work?
Then, the sentiment that such older works should be freely available (either in agreement with the cause of the re-releasers or due to scoffing at them as snotty privileged kids lording their wealth over others) could in the future be a springboard to changing the laws.
On second thought, since even if it worked this would probably involve directing lots of money into the hands of right-hoarders and award their misdeeds and kind of reinforce the intellectual property regime, rather than directing money to authors and other creators, it's not a great idea. But maybe there's another subversive campaign to cultivate a particular sentiment that could be instrumentally useful to your end goal, and which a puppetmaster driving a legion of computational-propaganda-animated social media accounts could contribute a great deal to.
posted by XMLicious at 8:49 AM on November 29, 2018
Then, the sentiment that such older works should be freely available (either in agreement with the cause of the re-releasers or due to scoffing at them as snotty privileged kids lording their wealth over others) could in the future be a springboard to changing the laws.
On second thought, since even if it worked this would probably involve directing lots of money into the hands of right-hoarders and award their misdeeds and kind of reinforce the intellectual property regime, rather than directing money to authors and other creators, it's not a great idea. But maybe there's another subversive campaign to cultivate a particular sentiment that could be instrumentally useful to your end goal, and which a puppetmaster driving a legion of computational-propaganda-animated social media accounts could contribute a great deal to.
posted by XMLicious at 8:49 AM on November 29, 2018
Less ambitiously, even just getting involved with Creative Commons isn't particularly difficult, and they've already made tons of progress in changing copyright law. The American Library Association is also heavily involved in copyright law. You can also contact the US copyright office and directly comment on policy.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:43 AM on November 29, 2018
posted by aspersioncast at 9:43 AM on November 29, 2018
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posted by johnxlibris at 6:49 AM on November 29, 2018