Entry to Public Domain of Canadian Authors Lost for a Generation | Hacker News Reader

Entry to Public Domain of Canadian Authors Lost for a Generation

michaelgeist.ca

32 pointsdanbolt10 comments

As an author who depends on royalties as part of my income I am coming more to the opinion that copyright should not be reformed, it should be abolished entirely for the sake of humanity. I'd gladly give up what I make to live in a better world for my children. But then I have to remind myself, this isn't about us creative types. It never was.

If you compare the success of cross border attempts to harmonise copyright and environmental, human rights or consumer protections laws it feels like the changes that make rich people slightly richer and poor people slightly poorer do much better than the ones that make rich people slightly poorer and poor people slightly richer.

Lost for a generation? No. They're still available to anyone who is willing to pay the writer/artist/creator. Those who want to make copies without sharing anything with the original artist or his/her estate, though, will have to wait. That's not the same thing as being lost.

The title says their entry to the public domain has been lost, not the works themselves.

> Those who want to make copies without sharing anything with the original artist or his/her estate

You can drop "original artist" from that sentence, since the copyright term has been extended from life + 50 years to life + 70 years. Even under the original term, not only would the authors be dead, there is a good chance their children and even some of their grandchildren would be dead.

The original artist who, by the way, enjoyed a world where public domain works were far more recent.

what a terrible cultural disaster this would be for Canada. i hope ya'll can avoid this!

Nope. It's in the budget, which is 99% likely to be approved by the parliament. :(

Isn't it in a treaty you already signed?

Democracy passing legislation by adding it to the budget seems like a real really cruddy modern mode we're stuck in. :(

Because royalties = taxes?

This is nothing compared to the SNC Lavalin scandal which also got hidden in a budget.

Liberal party in Canada has how many ethics violations? How many scandals? 3 more years of scandals incoming all approved by the NDP.

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