>An online petition to protect Public Domain.

Hmm.  What exactly does it mean, to "protect" the public domain?  I have 
vowed not to go out on the Web for a couple of weeks so as to guarantee 
that every time I'm sitting here, I'm working on my books unless I'm 
actually answering e-mail (this is one of the few lists I'm still checking 
on.)  However, I imagine they're keeping track of hits on the website for 
the petition, and it's just as well that they don't get tracking info from 
me when I don't know whether I'm for or against it yet.  Does this mean 
it's a petition to keep the concept of "public domain" in existence?  If 
so, I'm for that.  If I place a work in the public domain, or if we're 
talking about Shakespeare's plays (which have now passed into the PD), I 
want it to be just that, with no one who can come along and say it's now 
theirs, that they now "own" it.

On the other hand, online petitions usually don't mean anything.

 >the people working in tech and their fight with the creative arts 
communities.
 >the corporate techies want to change a good percentage of copyright law
 >[so they can put people's work on the web for free]--they call it "free 
informaion"

Hmm.  Now, if a person puts something on the Web and doesn't care whether 
we copy it or not, then that information is "free."  But if someone takes 
the exact wording from a work that the author has copyrighted, then the 
situation isn't covered by fair use after a couple of hundred words, and 
it's plagiarism.

 >National Public Radio discussing this issue and its ramifications

Maybe the NPR website . . . no, I just can't go surfing right now.  But it 
does sound as if we should be "up" on this issue.  I can see where certain 
corporations would like to be able to take OUR stuff free, but then if WE 
copied something they'd posted (even if it were stolen), Katy bar the 
door--we'd be sued.  They're probably trying to figure out how to phrase 
things to protect big business and the sleazy cabal that is trying to erase 
freedom of speech these days, but *not* protect the individual and his or 
her intellectual property from *them*.

*sigh*

To bring this even further on topic:  I've read on another list that 
Harlequin/Silhouette is no longer bothering to apply for copyrights on 
authors' books, and so the authors are going out and paying the $30 or so 
fee themselves.  While this seems fine on the surface, I can't believe that 
H/S is struggling financially to the extent that they'd need to skip that 
part, so I have to wonder if there's some ulterior motive.  Those books hit 
the shelves one month and are returned as pulp if unsold the next month (or 
go to some liquidator--they don't stay in print, normally, not the ones 
coming out as part of a category line such as Desire or Blaze), so it 
wouldn't seem that H/S is all that concerned after that month is 
past.  *But* it does seem they'd want to keep the work from being taken 
later by some other company . . . without any penalty.  If the author 
doesn't know how to do it or doesn't do it, what does that do?  Does it 
mean that the author is the stuck-ee all by himself or herself, should the 
book be copied later?  Authors could file suit and show the published book 
as proof that the work is theirs, but would that mean they'd win?  (Most of 
these books are so bad that I can't imagine why they'd be plagiarized, but 
I suppose the same market that consumes them might want more and more.  De 
gustibus, and all that.)  Authors also usually sign contracts in which the 
rights revert to them in a few years, three to five most of the time, and 
so they might want to re-sell the work later, possibly to an audiobook or 
e-book house.  So what happens if there's no copyright in the author's 
name? I'd think most authors should pay the fee and be sure.  (*And* most 
of us should keep track of what's happening with the issue of copyright!)
- - -
The only thing that flies faster than an F-16 is your guardian angel
- - - -
Nine out of ten doctors recommend reading my books.  The tenth is a quack.
Shalanna Collins   http://home.attbi.com/~shalanna/>
_Dulcinea: or Wizardry A-Flute_  (e-mail me 4 excerpt)  ISBN 0-7388-5388-7
New!  I'm trying out a blog/jrnl http://www.livejournal.com/users/shalanna/>

--- Rachel's Little NET2FIDO Gate v 0.9.9.8 Alpha