Post originally by Dan at 2003-07-28 20:05:16
Converted from Phorums BB System

Zoran tried to change the topic after his error was pointed out by saying:
"Or are you advocating piracy under the cover of some legal technicality?"

It's not "piracy" if it's in the public domain. Public domain is meant for the good of the people, freely usable for everyone. It's only "piracy" if it's still covered by copyright.

And it's not a legal "technicality" either, it's how the law was knowingly created and intended to be followed in the United States. It's not wrong to point out and follow the laws as they are applied in one's own country.

And, I must say, trying to turn this into an anti-America bash is just pathetic.

You also said:
"The Invisible Man was written by a British author and first published in Great Britain. What part of that is going over your head? "

A) It doesn't matter because it's public domain EVERYWHERE, including the UK, and:

B) First publication doesn't matter. If it was published in the U.S. (and it was), it follows U.S. laws for when it would become public domain in the U.S., not British or French or Australian. That'd make most of these examples you are using have copyrights expired on the order of 50 years or so before you seem to think they should, depending upon how quickly the author died and if they renewed the copyrights (as renewals were not automatic originally).

Continually quoting British laws and expecting them to hold up for the United States and the rest of the world is pointless.