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

Thu Jan 6 15:12:48 UTC 2011

John: yes I'm pretty sure we had contact with them in the past.

Becky: are you (still?) in touch with the folks behind copyright-watch.org?

On Thu, Jan 6, 2011 at 4:08 PM, John Mark Ockerbloom
<ockerblo at pobox.upenn.edu> wrote:
> 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
>
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-- 
Jonathan Gray

Community Coordinator
The Open Knowledge Foundation
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