From: Kevin Smith <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sun, 6 Mar 2016 22:14:18 +0000

I'm not sure that Eric's comment really did imply that the AAP supported
that particular extension of the copyright, nor that its force depends on
that fact.  It seems unarguable to me that copyright law as it is
currently formulated and enforced does not serve scholarly authors very
well.  It is designed for large content industries, not for authors who
want to reach the largest possible audience and have little hope of
financial remuneration.

It is worth noting that the Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality
of the Sonny Bono Term Extension Act; they did not rule that it was a good
idea, of course, since that is not their job.  And it (Eldred v. Ashcroft)
was not a unanimous decision; Justices Breyer and Stevens dissented, both
suggesting what Eric has asserted, that copyright has become too
protective and extended to continue to serve its Constitutional purpose.

Kevin

Kevin L. Smith, M.L.S., J.D.
Director of Copyright and Scholarly Communications
Duke University Libraries
P.O. Box 90193
Durham, NC 27708
[log in to unmask]



On 3/6/16 12:38 PM, "LIBLICENSE" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>From: Sandy Thatcher <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Fri, 4 Mar 2016 00:58:07 -0600
>
>You seem to be implying that publishers were responsible for the
>extension of copyright. In fact, the Association of American
>Publishers did not support the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension
>Act. In popular mythology it is blamed on Disney, but the larger
>driving force was copyright harmonization of US law with European law,
>which had been extended under the European Directive and would have
>put US authors at a disadvantage had Congress not matched that
>extension.  The Act was also upheld by a unanimous decision of the
>Supreme Court.
>
>Sandy Thatcher
>
>
>From: Eric Elmore <[log in to unmask]>
>
>Date: Thu, 3 Mar 2016 17:20:49 +0000
>
>Does it really though?  Or has copyright become just another tool for
>the for-profit publishing industry to extract ever increasing fees
>from the academic market?  Copyright started out as a limited right to
>authors, but how long does it extend now? 150 years? Longer? That
>doesn't sound like a right a human author would realistically need.
>It's not an especially large leap of logic to see copyright as having
>been subverted and warped, only benefitting the large corporations who
>wield it like a bludgeon against the very academics who do the actual
>research, and writing, and editing of the materials they "publish".
>
>
>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>Eric Elmore
>Electronic Resources Coordinator
>The University of Texas at San Antonio
>One UTSA Circle
>San Antonio, TX.  78249-0671
>                 [log in to unmask]
>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++