March 29, 2005
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I
missed the deadline by a couple of days but I sent this to a group
seeking comment to forward to the US copywright office on changes to
copyright laws concerning old publications. The Symbionese
Liberation Army prosecutions after the June 1999 arrest of Soliah/Olson
should be a “poster child” for this effort. Please visit
the website of the group behind this effort. http://www.orphanworks.org/While I have not commercially
published anything I became involved with following modern prosecution
of members of the Symbionese Liberation Army. (SLA) The
group was probably most famous for the 1974 kidnapping of Patricia
Hearst, the grandaughter of the late publishing magnate William
Randoph Hearst.
Since
the events happened in 1974 to 1975 finding material was
difficult. Sources such as http://bookfinder.com helped
immensely. I posted some material online at my http://soliah.com
and rarely recieved a complaint from the authors, since the material
had long been out of print. The few complaints i did recieve were
from those who wer marginally involved and didn’t want theor public
writings brought to light. None followed through on threats about
copywright infringments but I worry about this if I ever try to publish
anthing about the new conviction against SLA members and “associates”.
I
like the Wired Magazine http://wired.com idea that trademarks,
copyrighted material and such have a system somewhat like the internet
domain registration system. After ten or twenty years they could
pay a modest fee to renew the rights. If not, they would be open
for generous reuse or reposting on the internet if not for profit.
There’s
an old newspaper saying that the newspaper farchive is called the
“mourge” because “nothings as old as yesterday’s news. Greg
Lang Minneapolis, MN, USA slatial@netscape.net
