[pd-discuss] Anyone in touch with the EFF or its Copyright Watch project?

Thu Jan 6 15:08:38 UTC 2011

A couple of years back, the EFF launched what looked to be a very promising site
keeping track of copyright laws and developments over time:

    http://www.copyright-watch.org/

In many cases, this had links to more up-to-date laws than the sources I was
linking to from my own site

    http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/okbooks.html#whatpd

and I planned on discontinuing my links there and just point to their site.

Unfortunately, it looks like their site is no longer being maintained.  The news
items on the front page are dated 2009, and some of the documents mentioned
there (like Iraq's new copyright law) never made it to the country page.
I wrote to the contact address a few weeks back with a few updates and
corrections, and I never heard back from them or saw any signs of change on
the site.

That's unfortunate, because we really could use a reliable source not only
of current copyright law, but of developments in copyright law over time.
These can be essential for building reliable public domain calculators
of the sort the OKFN is sponsoring.  (For instance, knowing not just the
current state of a country's law, but *when* copyright changes such as
term extensions were made, and whether such changes were retroactive
or not-- they are in some cases, and not in others-- is important for
making reliable PD determinations.)

Also, a lot of extensions in copyright in various countries are flying
under the radar at the moment-- there are usually multiple countries
extending copyright every year, often due to trade pressure from the US
or the EU-- and it would very useful to bring this sort of thing to light
and hopefully slow or reverse them.

It's tempting to immediately say, "Well, let's create a Copyright Watch
replacement!"  But lots of us are pretty busy as it is, and I don't want
to just have us start yet another information source that then suffers
the same fate as http://www.copyright-watch.org/ .  So I'd like first
to see whether someone here is in touch with EFF and could see whether
their site could be revived, perhaps with some input and help from folks here.
If not, then we can consider whether to start a new effort, and how
it should work.

Joh