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The Continuing Saga of Buck Rogers and the Copyright Trolls

posted by martyb on Monday July 02 2018, @12:54PM   
from the life-after-death dept.

canopic jug writes:

Two lawyers are still fighting to keep Buck Rogers from entering the public domain, something which should have begun 70 years after the author's death. Philip Nowlan, the stories' author, died in 1940 and so his works should have joined the public domain starting 2010. Part of the strategy from the copyright trolls has been to drag out the process with multiple lawsuits.

Back in October 2015 we brought you the story of the Buck Rogers Copyright Trolls, two lawyers who were fighting to keep Buck Rogers from entering the public domain using the discredited Sherlock Holmes system of licensing. Two and a half years later, Louise Geer and Dan Herman are still at it, using every trick in the book to keep a beloved tale out of the public domain, where it firmly belongs. Along the way the pair have stiffed multiple law firms, and currently are abusing a Bankruptcy Court in Pennsylvania in a Hail Mary effort to...well, it's not exactly clear what they're trying to do.

From Boing Boing : The continuing saga of Buck Rogers and the Copyright Trolls

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Original Submission

• Re:Copyright is good and badRe:Copyright is good and bad (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 02 2018, @05:21PM (3 children)

  by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 02 2018, @05:21PM (#701473)

  Yup, my proposal was that you get 20 years free.

  After that, you need to register the work with the PTO (which could then be the PTCO?), with an estimated worth of the work.

  Then, each year you must pay a tax on the worth of the work, where T = W x (Y - 20)/100, (T=tax, W=stated worth, Y=year after publishing) so the 21st year you pay 1%, 22nd, 2% etc. Each year you are allowed to change the estimated worth. The catch is that you are legally bound to accept any offer to buy the rights for anything exceeding that estimate, the new owners can re-estimate the worth upon purchase. Failure to pay for a full year lapses the work into the public domain. The list will be publicly available through the PT(C)O, and any work over 20 years old not in that list will be assumed to be PD (defensible in court).

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• Re:Copyright is good and badRe:Copyright is good and bad (Score: 2) by Alfred on Monday July 02 2018, @07:44PM (2 children)

  by Alfred (4006) on Monday July 02 2018, @07:44PM (#701550) Journal

  I disagree with the compulsion to sell part of it. It leaves you vulnerable to hostile takeover. Can you propose something that is not dependent on the "worth" of the work? I would be content with a value set only by the age of the work. Especially if it grows exponentially.

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  • Re:Copyright is good and bad(Score: 2) by Mykl on Monday July 02 2018, @11:46PM

    by Mykl (1112) on Monday July 02 2018, @11:46PM (#701639)

    Perhaps this should be that you have to EITHER:

    • Sell the copyright at the offered price (assuming genuine offer); OR
    • Raise the 'value' of your work to a figure higher than the offer, and continue to pay copyright ownership fees based on the new, higher price

    At some point, it needs to become economically unviable to continue to pay for extended copyright.

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  • Re:Copyright is good and bad(Score: 3, Interesting) by Reziac on Tuesday July 03 2018, @03:10AM

    by Reziac (2489) on Tuesday July 03 2018, @03:10AM (#701711) Homepage

    Someone on the Green Site once proposed this:

    Initial copyright registration, say for 14 years from first publication date: free
    Renewal, say for 7 years: fee, inexpensive enough for entry-level users
    Every 7 years thereafter: renewal fee doubles

    So how much you pay is directly proportional to how long you hang onto it. And after a certain point, even Mickey Mouse isn't worth the cost.

    --
    And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.

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