COPYCENSE

It seems that Peter Pan is due to fall out of copyright protection and into the public domain. And the character’s British copyright holders are trying their damndest to do a Disney and keep that from happening.

Disney, of course, was one of the chief proponents of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA), which Congress passed into law in 1998. The CTEA extended copyright protection another twenty years not only for new creative works, but also for existing creative works — including those (like Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh) that were about to fall into the public domain.

(Lest we always smack Big Corporate for the CTEA, let it be known for the record that the Gershwin estate — holder of the copyrights to George’s and Ira’s songs — also lobbied hard for the CTEA.)

Now we have a Reuters story that says that London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital, the entity that holds the Peter Pan copyright, is desperately seeking an author to write a sequel to the Peter Pan story; the European copyright on the story is due to expire in 2007. According to the Reuters story, royalties from Peter Pan provide "a ‘significant but confidential’ source of income."

I am unsure of what British or European Union copyright law says on this issue, but given the recent penchant for global "harmonization" of copyright laws, I am almost sure that those foreign laws have been updated to include CTEA-like provisions. (By the way, "harmonization" is just another way to say for "the U.S. needs foreign companies to make its IP laws just like ours in order to make sure that domestic creativity gets the same protection everywhere in the world.")

The irony here is that author J. M. Barrie donated the Peter Pan character to the Hospital in the late 1920s. Apparently, the hospital is not interested in being similarly charitable.

This may be occurring across the pond, but it is sooooo Hollywood.

Reuters. Author Sought So Peter Pan Copyright Never Grows Up. Aug. 23, 2004.

"In June 2003, Best Buy transferred ownership of the Musicland Group to a private investment company, asking for nothing but the investors’ assumption of Musicland’s debt and lease obligations.

"Just over a year later, Musicland, of Minnetonka, Minn., has named Zimmerman Partners in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to handle its account, with billings estimated at $50 million. The two companies are poised to execute the next step in a turnaround plan: makeovers for the 900 stores that Musicland runs under the Sam Goody, Media Play and Suncoast Motion Picture brands, which collectively sell CD’s as well as entertainment products ranging from DVD’s to movie posters to books.

"The strategy envisions stores that embrace the Internet’s role in music sales and emulate the loungelike atmosphere of chains like Barnes & Noble and Starbucks."

Nat Ives. Musicland  Looks to the Internet. The New York Times. Aug. 24, 2004.

See also Richard Shim. Starbucks, HP Queue Up Music Coffeehouses. News.com. March 16, 2004.

(Editor�s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper�s fee-based Archive.)

"A top Justice Department official on Monday took a swipe at one of the recording industry’s favorite ideas: a law encouraging federal prosecutors to sue copyright infringers.

"Hewitt Pate, assistant attorney general for antitrust, expressed skepticism toward a bill called the Pirate Act that the Senate overwhelmingly approved in June. It’s designed to curb peer-to-peer piracy by threatening individual infringers with civil lawsuits brought by the government.

"That idea is ‘something that people should take with a grain of salt,’ Pate said at a conference held by the Progress & Freedom Foundation. While ‘the Justice Department is there to enforce the law, there’s something to be said for those who help themselves.’"

Declan McCullagh. Justice Dept. Takes P2P with ‘Grain of Salt’. News.com. Aug. 23, 2004.

"The makers of two leading file-sharing programs are not legally liable for copyrighted works swapped online by their users, a federal appeals court ruled (.pdf) in a blow to the entertainment industry.

"Among other reasons, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit said Grokster Ltd. and StreamCast Networks Inc., unlike the original Napster LLC, were not liable because they don’t have central servers pointing users to copyrighted material.

"The panel noted that the software firms simply provide tools that let individual users share information over the Internet, regardless of whether that shared information is copyrighted."

Associated Press. Appeals Court Ruling Favors File-Sharing. WashingtonPost.com. Aug. 20, 2004.

See also John Borland. Judges Rule File-Sharing Software Legal. News.com. Aug. 19, 2004.

(Editor�s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper�s fee-based Archives.)

"A group of anonymous programmers has released new software that allows music to be swapped via Apple Computer’s popular iTunes jukebox.

"Like an older piece of software called MyTunes, the newly released OurTunes allows a person to browse complete iTunes libraries on other computers and download songs, either in MP3 or the AAC format preferred by Apple.

"Songs purchased from the iTunes music store and wrapped in Apple’s copy-protection technology cannot be traded. OurTunes works only among computers that share a network, however."

John Borland. Hackers revive iTunes music sharing.

News.com. Aug. 19, 3004.

"I2hub, the supercharged file-swapping network that has run for months on the university Internet2 network, is aiming to solidify its hold on campuses, with new businesses targeted at students.

"The I2hub founders have acquired a small online textbook exchange and are tying it into the file-swapping service, hoping that students will start reselling books to each other instead of using local bookstores. With this, and other similar student-focused services, they’re aiming to turn the file-swapping traffic into a more traditional–and potentially profitable–hub of campus activities."

John Borland. Supercharged College P2P Project Expands. News.com. Aug. 16, 2004.