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Authored by: Winter on Wednesday, October 03 2012 @ 11:31 AM EDT |
"For over 100 years, since 1909, foreigners have had the same rights under
US law as US citizens had. No Berne Convention ever had anything whatsoever to
do with that."
That right was to have their works protected if *registered* in the USA. There
was even at some time a provision that only works published first in the USA
were protected by USA copyright law.
By intent and design, USA copyright law was indeed drafted to allow American
publishers to copy freely from works published outside the USA.
It ended when the USA wanted to force Korea to protect USA textile designs. The
Koreans simply answered that they were under no obligation to do so unless the
USA entered the Berne convention.
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Some say the sun rises in the east, some say it rises in the west; the truth
lies probably somewhere in between.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Wol on Wednesday, October 03 2012 @ 12:00 PM EDT |
In law, may be. In practice, not at all.
When was the law (or practice) changed so that foreigners could TIMELY apply for
copyright renewal, for example? It was routine to reject foreigners' renewal
applications if they were made more than three weeks before expiry. Yet it took
six weeks to process the renewal.
So on the date of expiry, American publishers would rush out editions on the
excuse "they haven't renewed the copyright". When the re-registration
finally went through, foreigners were left trying to close the barn door ...
Cheers,
Wol[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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