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

Fri Jan 21 18:32:09 UTC 2011

Becky Hogge wrote:
> Yup, I got back to John 10 days ago off list with two contacts. But I
> haven't heard back from him...?

Haven't had the chance to follow up with them, but thanks for passing
along the contact info!  I'll try to contact them sometime next week.

John

> 
> On 19 January 2011 17:28, Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org> wrote:
>> 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
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> pd-discuss mailing list
>>>> pd-discuss at lists.okfn.org
>>>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/pd-discuss
>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> pd-discuss mailing list
>>> pd-discuss at lists.okfn.org
>>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/pd-discuss
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Jonathan Gray
>>
>> Community Coordinator
>> The Open Knowledge Foundation
>> http://blog.okfn.org
>>
>> http://twitter.com/jwyg
>> http://identi.ca/jwyg
>>
> 
> _______________________________________________
> pd-discuss mailing list
> pd-discuss at lists.okfn.org
> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/pd-discuss