Governments Copyright land snatch

[Ryoko]

Read this

www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/02/govt_copyright_white_paper/

Interesting that the thread about the guy being extradited due to copyright breaches in the US is getting watched but this massive theft of individuals online work isn't getting noticed at all.

I'm struggling to work out what this means in practical terms. Would it be, for example, that if I sang a song, played guitar and then posted in on YouTube and someone wanted to pinch it for their own use, I'd have no comebacks?

Pretty much, it means you have to opt out of the scheme in order to protect your own creations.

In essence it's a way of thieving content that belongs to people who have long since forgotten about it, died or are ignorant of the new law.

They've just noticed the amount of orphaned content online (or believed to be orphaned) and want to take it for themselves.

Does anyone get royalties or make a living out of the orphaned content at present?

There is no such thing as orphaned content. At the moment copyright is owned by the producer of the work e.g you own copyright of photos you put on flickr (even if you don't add creative commons)

The government is I think proposing that they automatically own all non-formally copyrighted work (like your flickr photos if you don't cc them), or your youtube postings if you don't explicitly copyright them. The government can then flog your work and make a vague effort to find you. If they find you you get a %age, if they can't you get nowt.

I can't see how it can work though? As it is a UK government thing it can only apply to uk people. How do they tell where work online is from?

cogito if something is on the internet it is not free to use, copyright always belongs to somebody. If you want to use any work on the internet you need to ask the owner.

So is the net effect of this measure 'copyright your work before posting it on the internet?'

I think the net effect is that you will have to register everything you put on the internet with a government body, or it will be deemed to automatically belong to the government, rather than automatically to you.

This shit is getting rushed thru (well they want it to be) before the new EU law on copyrighted stuff is passed, this bill will be illegal under the new EU law, but under the rules if it passes in to law first there's nothing the EU can do.

I don't think the applies to UK people thing counts, I think it's more if it is only used in the UK if you see what I mean. the same as China has no copyright laws so no one can really take a Chinese company to court for say ripping off the name and design of a sony console for a cheap shit knock off (all you can do is ban them in your country rather then tackle them at source).

If it would be illegal under EU law, all someone would have to do would be to take a test case to the Supreme Court - who in turn would have to apply domestic law consistent with EU law - and it would be overturned. Which seems to be so much of a waste of everyone's time that I wonder if the original article wasn't jumping the gun.

"think the net effect is that you will have to register everything"

you forgot the (almost mandatory) "and pay the Govt a fee" part !

Wasn't there something a year or two back that suggested that because of the risk of insurance claims against home owners who had trees in their garden (said trees being a risk to passers by on the pavement, or neighbours having your tree damage their property - be it damaging car, house, person(s), pet(s) or just the garden itself) then we'd need to 'certify' each tree every few (3) years as being "sound" by hiring an arboriculturalist and paying 100 quid or more for a certificate per tree.

Think it is time I read the Reg article and contacted my MP, (hopefully) to raise some pertinent questions before this goes through, even if it is just doubt in the morality, among those MPs who might be expected (on party lines) to automatically support something (the way the Digital Economy Act got rushed through with obscene haste back in 2010, the day the announcement was made by Labour about the dissolution of Parliament and the forthcoming date for the Election. That was a rotten rubbishy bill and Act, and while a little was adjusted, it is still something I'd like to see revoked).