1 May
2010
1 May
'10
7:12 p.m.
On 1 May 2010 at 18:57, Fred Cisin wrote:
I understand that Amazon tried to memory-hole
"1984", when they found
out that it won't be public domain until 2044.
Well, it's public domain in Australia (is it PD in Canada?). TRIPS
tried to advance the doctrine of "shortest term" for international
copyright protection, but that scared Disney and other vested
interests, so it was weakened to "only if you want to do it that
way", which no one does.
I think Australia uses 50 years post morten auctoris for copyrights,
while the US is 95 from publication or 75 PMA. It's a little
complicated for international works, particularly when it comes to
stuff from the former USSR.
Amazon had obtained their e-copy from an Aussie source. You can, in
fact, navigate to a .au web site and read 1984 online. Of course,
that's technically illegal for US citizens...
The only thing normal about copyright normalization under WTO
agreements is that it isn't normal.
--Chuck