Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Cirex I am a Spanish citizen, so what I do from Spain is under Spanish laws.
I know USA has stricter rules and it is NOT encouraging innovation and creativity. Copyright was born to encourage the spreading and expanding of culture. Ironic, isn't it? |
Actually, by treaty I believe, copyright law is governed by the country where the copyright is held. That's why a lot of technical and scientific journals are published out of Switzerland, where the copyright law is stricter on fair use than it is in the US.
In fact, fair use is one area where US copyright law shines compared to many others. Our definition of that is pretty broad and designed to enable review, parody, and education. And it works quite well for that.
The problem with intellectual property laws, in the US at least, is their relationships with corporations. IP laws designed to protect an author's (or creator's) right to profit from the work can have the effect of suppressing creativity that they weren't originally intended to have because large corporations have longevity and political influence far beyond that of small publishers and individual authors. Mickey Mouse should have been public domain by now but the Disney Corporation and a compliant congress have extended the IP laws so that Disney can retain exclusive control of their signature icon. And they'll probably extended it again right before he comes up for public domain, all of this long after the Mouse's creator is long dead.
And yet another word from our sponsors
