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

[Jonathan Gray]

Any news on this front Becky? Nearly but not quite a fortnight, so
thought I'd ping you as you suggested. ;-)

On Thu, Jan 6, 2011 at 5:52 PM, Becky Hogge <becky.hogge at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi John
>
> My contact for this project at EFF has moved on, but I'm in touch with
> the group that funded it. I'll make some enquiries and get back to
> you. Ping me in a fortnight if you've not heard anything.
>
> Cheers
>
> Becky
>
> On 6 January 2011 15:08, 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

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The Open Knowledge Foundation
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