Breakfast with a presidential candidate

[Bruce Dawson]

On Mon, 2004-01-05 at 22:07, Mark Komarinski wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 05, 2004 at 09:13:15PM -0500, Bruce Dawson wrote:
> > So, with all that out of the way, I was wondering what the Linux/OSS
> > community would like for him to hear? What are the issues we have that a
> > president can solve?
> 
> As a high level idea, a sane IP policy would be really nice.

Careful here - I'll be talking to a politician, and their concept of
"sane" is a lot different than ours!

> Copyright extension overhaul, more money to PTO to do real research on
> upcoming patents, remove patents on software, and repeal that stupid DMCA.

Excellent ideas. But he's interested in helping industry, and the
general perception is that these things are good. I know why software
patents are bad, and why parts of the DMCA are bad. So I'll need more
than a few minutes of his time to explain this.

As I understand it, copyright extension has simply gotten out of control
and is no longer in the public interest. Also, its entangled with a lot
of treaties. But I think the issue is simple to state and easily
"graspable".

Money to the PTO is undeniably needed. However, "filing fees" may go up
- which will make it more difficult for the average Joe to file. This
would make it easier for the "big guys" to control software development,
which is bad. This will give him something to chew on.

> In all honesty, I think Disney should be able to keep their trademark on
> Mickey Mouse and "Steamboat Willie".  Something maybe like treating
> copyrights like trademarks after a certain amount of time would be
> appropriate.  This would allow Disney to keep their copyrights, but let
> other IP (old ROMs, for example) to drop into the public domain.

Not sure about this. Trademarks expire, but can be renewed. Copyrights
expire (after 75 years - or whatever the latest number is), but can't be
renewed.

I think that we want a change in policy of enforcement - that copying by
individuals is permitted if the copyright holder is unwilling to resume
publishing, however, commercial publishing would be denied for the life
of the copyright. Does this sound acceptable?

--Bruce
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
Url : http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/private/gnhlug-discuss/attachments/20040106/5cda9935/attachment.bin