Talk:Copyright

US centric Article

(Revived from archive 3 as still relevant)

As the case with so many other Articles this piece talks of copyright law as if it exist only in United States. Whereas one can understand the economic significance of copyright law in the US since RIAA MPAA and many huge corporations rely soley on these laws for their major source of revenues, it does not warrant filling up of copyright law article substantially with US copyright legal regime. The Article goes into details US copyright law in nitty gritty when there exists another separate article on US copyright law. It only makes a passing refernce to other common law countries and to very less extent to civil law copyright system. I hope this inherent bias running across various Articles, and discussion pages (talking only of US situations) could be neutralized by doing research on other countries around the world. I do not object to giving more bytes to US if it is justified in the context of the Article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.138.120.65 (talk) 09:10, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

This is a historic problem, and a common one as well. Many contributors to the English Wikipedia are from the US and my impression is that to start with many articles were written from a US perspective for US readers. Many articles are now being "globalised" as per wikipolicy (it takes its time), see tag below.

--SasiSasi (talk) 19:35, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Duration/expiry outside USA

Still a problem, eg Copyright#Duration says US content prior to 1923 is now out of copyright, but does not mention eg UK, Canada, Australia. perpetual copyright says "The Donaldson v Beckett ruling [in 1774] confirmed that a large number of works and books first published in Britain were in the public domain, either because the copyright term granted by statute had expired, or because they were first published before the Statute of Anne was enacted in 1709." Has that changed since 1774 ? (I'm trying to find out if UK publications (eg anon contributions in encyclopedias) from 1910s and 1920s are still in copyright.) - Rod57 (talk) 15:33, 16 September 2016 (UTC)

Are you interested in UK copyrights as applied in the UK or UK copyrights as applied in the US / elsewhere? The US considers all content published before 1923 to be in the public domain in the US, regardless of the copyright's duration in country of origin. Dragons flight (talk) 16:03, 16 September 2016 (UTC)

You might want to consult the article Copyright law of the United Kingdom (which deals with past and present copyright laws) and the one on the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (which is the current main law on the topic).

Also note when did the original creator of the work die, as it has an effect on the copyright status of a published work per European Union law. To quote 2016 in public domain: "With the exception of Belarus, a work enters the public domain in Europe 70 years after the creator's death, if it was published during the creator's lifetime." Among the authors whose work supposedly enters the public domain this year are Anne Frank and Adolf Hitler, because they died over 70 years ago.

If you simply want a comparison of copyright laws by country, consult List of countries' copyright lengths. Dimadick (talk) 12:57, 18 September 2016 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 21 September 2016

Just a slight adjustment to the first sentence in the History section:

"Copyright came about with the invention of the printing press and with wider literacy."

This sentence is misleading because the printing press was invented in the 1450s (or thereabouts) and copyright (ie author's rights did not come about until 1709 with the Statue of Anne. A better start would be:

"Copyright came about in the early-18th century following the development of the printing press in the mid-15th and the consequent rise in literacy."

Some might still disagree, but it's better than what's there now. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.61.41.171 (talk) 19:42, 21 September 2016‎ (UTC)

Do you have a reference?--Nowa (talk) 23:03, 21 September 2016 (UTC)

The sources are on wikipedia already

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_press

"The printing press was invented in the Holy Roman Empire by the German Johannes Gutenberg around 1440"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_Anne

"The Statute of Anne, also known as the Copyright Act 1710 (cited either as 8 Ann. c. 21 or as 8 Ann. c. 19),[1] is an act of the Parliament of Great Britain passed in 1710, which was the first statute to provide for copyright regulated by the government and courts, rather than by private parties.

Prior to the statute's enactment in 1710, copying restrictions were authorized by the Licensing of the Press Act 1662. These restrictions were enforced by the Stationers' Company, a guild of printers given the exclusive power to print—and the responsibility to censor—literary works"

The licensing acts were not "copyright" as we think of it today, they reserved the ability to run printing presses to a certain group (the Stationers Company) - this was a form of control/censorship over print reproduction, nothing really to do with copyright. Real copyright only came into being in 1710 when rights of ownership were given to authors, rather than the right to run a press given to "stationers". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.61.41.201 (talk) 14:12, 28 September 2016 (UTC)

Pinging @Nowa for response. JTP ^{(talk • contribs)} 14:01, 2 November 2016 (UTC)

I like pointing out the delay between invention of the printing press and the Statute of Anne. It seems well referenced by the other Wikipedia article. I would import that reference from the other article.Nowa (talk) 01:08, 3 November 2016 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 2 November 2016

see Nimmer on copyright doctrine, the International leader on copyright law see Mellville Nimmer David Nimmer

216.4.88.194 (talk) 00:46, 2 November 2016 (UTC)

Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format. — JJMC89 (T·C) 04:42, 2 November 2016 (UTC)

duration of copyright

"This is usually only for a limited time." signing Elinruby (talk) 10:39, 4 January 2017 (UTC) needs source and reality check vs Sonny Bono law. Suggest "copyright expires at some point" or better yet, "copyright has a finite duration, which has however in some cases been extended a time or two". Elinruby (talk) 10:51, 4 January 2017 (UTC)

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