From: Joseph Esposito <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2015 21:22:16 -0500

No comment on the Anne Frank situation except to say that it smells
bad. As for Mark Twain, an amusing tidbit. It turns out that his
trademark white suit was worn by him for the very first time when he
appeared before a Congressional committee to argue for strong
copyright protection. I don't know the context of the Twain quotation
Kevin cites (but it is marvelous), but I would like to know if the
point of the wisecrack (by Twain) was that copyright was confusing for
everyone or that God did not know how to protect authors properly.
It's funny regardless.

Joe Esposito


On Mon, Nov 23, 2015 at 7:09 PM, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> From: Kevin Smith <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2015 10:36:37 +0000
>
> As far as making sense is concerned, Mark Twain once wrote that the
> only thing impossible for God was to make sense of any copyright law,
> so your idea of what makes sense may not be a standard by which to
> judge this case.  If it were as simple and straightforward as you
> suggest, groups of Swiss and Dutch lawyers would not be dedicating
> billable hours to fighting over it.
>
> Your first point about the public domain is incorrect on two counts.
> As a factual matter, the Diary is not in the public domain.  Its
> copyright is set to expire this year, 70 years after Anne Frank's
> death, and it would enter the public domain on January 1, 2016.  So
> the case is not about bring it back from the public domain; the
> frantic efforts of those lawyers are about preventing it from becoming
> public property in a few weeks by extending the copyright term.  And,
> in any case, it is possible to pull things back from the public
> domain, as we know from the Supreme Court, which upheld the law that
> restored copyright in foreign works that were PD in the U.S. Due to
> failure to follow formalities.  This is why the public domain needs to
> be carefully guarded.
>
> Kevin L. Smith, M.L.S., J.D.
> Director of Copyright and Scholarly Communications
> Duke University Libraries
> Durham, NC 27708
> [log in to unmask]