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Bill: Copyright Limitation Act
Details
Submitted by[?]: Populist Liberal Party
Status[?]: passed
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: December 2129
Description[?]:
| Whereas, Copyright protection is needed at some level to maintain an incentive to produce original works, but Whereas, There need to be some limits to prevent abuses we have seen, including claiming copyright infringement for downloading things not for sale anywhere and including overcharging students for textbooks they are required to buy, we propose the following limitations on copyrights: 1) A copyright lasts for eight years. After eight years, the copyrighted material becomes part of the public domain. 2) If a copyright holder does not offer an item for sale, at a price that is within the normal realm of the price of that type of media or technology, the item has no copyright protection as long as this is the case. (The purpose of this is to fully legalize "abandonware"). 3) Copyrights do not apply to "fair academic use," which is defined as distribution of less than 20% of a work by a class instructor to the members of the class. This will limit the numbers of textbooks needed per class, as college instructors often must assign entire textbooks just because they need a chapter or two from one of them. |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change Protection of original works of technology and arts.
Old value:: Works of technology and art are protected by copyright.
Current: Works of technology and art are protected by copyright.
Proposed: Works of techology and art have limited copy protection.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 23:24:09, October 21, 2005 CET | From | Populist Liberal Party | To | Debating the Copyright Limitation Act |
| Message | We think that this protects the public interest on both sides: The copyright holder retains an eight year monopoly on his work, which is plenty of time to make money on it and retain the incentive to produce it; but eventually it becomes public domain and thus available to all. The second provision is basically a legalization of abandonware. The price clause is in there only because without it someone could say, "Yeah, that program is still for sale, at a million KRP per copy" to get around it. The third provision was accepted law in the USA for years before it was struck down by a court, at which time the costs of attending college soared as extra textbooks had to be assigned. Before it was struck down, it wasn't like no one made textbooks. On the contrary, it was still a very profitable undertaking. |
| Date | 16:52:54, October 22, 2005 CET | From | Malfico Progressive Fascist Party | To | Debating the Copyright Limitation Act |
| Message | This bill is common sense and we shall support it |
| Date | 17:18:13, October 22, 2005 CET | From | Secular Humanist Party | To | Debating the Copyright Limitation Act |
| Message | YES! |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | ||||
| yes |
Total Seats: 366 | ||||
| no | Total Seats: 99 | ||||
| abstain | Total Seats: 118 |
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