(Wikimedia)
The original “fact sheet” of the USA/Mexico deal released on August 27,
2018 by USTR included the following re copyright term:
- Extend the minimum copyright term to 75 years for works like song
performances and ensure that works such as digital music, movies,
and books can be protected through current technologies such as
technological protection measures and rights management information.
(highlight
added)
On or
about August 30, 2018 the “Fact Sheet” wording was changed to the following:
- Set a minimum
standard of 75 years of copyright term for sound recordings and other
works calculated by date of publication, and life plus 70 years for works calculated based on the life of the
author.
(highlight added)
- Extend the minimum copyright term to 75 years for works like song
performances and ensure that works such as digital music, movies,
and books can be protected through current technologies such as
technological protection measures and rights management information.
That’s
the same wording as the statement on August 27, 2018. Does this mean that the USA has backed
off the life + 70 notion? Hopefully so. Although nobody expects consistency or even
competency from the President, one would hope that the USTR could at least
provide some semblance of clarity and that presumably yesterday and today’s
version is authoritative.
BTW, Canada has successfully stood its ground in the
CETA and CPTPP fora on keeping the long-established norm and WIPO/WTO benchmark
of life + 50 years. This has been the international norm since the 1948
Revision of the Berne Convention. Although the EU has a requirement of life +
70, Canada successfully resisted any pressure to ratchet its term upwards.
There was a surreptitious attempt to increase Canada’s
copyright term in a 2003 bill that was ostensibly about merging the Canada’s
national library and archives, but which included a stealth attempt to prolong
copyright protection in the name of Canada’s unofficial literary saint, Lucy
Maud Montgomery. This was the result of a “mediation” by lawyer and copyright consultant
Wanda Noel.
I am very pleased with myself for the significant role I played – along with
others – in blocking the passage of that aspect of the legislation, which I discussed in a widely read op-ed at the time entitled “Mouse in the House”. The American obsession with a longer copyright term as
the result of an extraordinary effort by the Walt Disney organization to extend
the Mickey Mouse cash machine as a long as possible should be recalled – “forever less a day” was
the ideal term of protection for the US legislation’s proponents a few year's earlier in 1998.
Canada’s only concession to a longer term occurred even
more by stealth in the frankly shameful inclusion in the 2015 eve-of-the-election
Stephen Harper budget bill of all things of an extension to 70 years for sound
recordings. There was no consultation or debate, of course. It was a simple and
gratuitous giveaway to the American recording industry through the efforts of
its Canadian surrogate Music Canada and
a triumph of lobbying over logic and evidence, as I have said.
Canada should
continue to stand its ground on this issue, as I’ve said in a CIGIOnline paper.
The costs
to Canada of getting this wrong are not only immense in terms of loss of efficient
access to knowledge. For example, George Orwell died in 1950. His landmark
works have been in the public domain in Canada for 18 years. The Americans are
still waiting for his works to enter the public domain. Especially at times
like this, it is important not to expand but rather to plug the concept of a
“memory hole” as Orwell aptly described it. Memory holes are much beloved by
despots and wannabe despots – such as those who “love the poorly educated.”
The costs
would also be significant financially and would be a tax on research and
innovation. Based upon a rigorous New Zealand government study, I have
estimated these costs as
follows:
The average present value of the cost of 20 year copyright for
recorded music and books term extension (which included an estimate for film
and television) was estimated by NZ is NZ $505 million, which is CDN $434
million, which adjusted by GDP ratio, would work out to about CDN $4.176
billion.
The average
annual cost for NZ is NZ $55 million, which is $CDN 47.3, which
adjusted by GDP ratio, would work out to about CDN $454 million.
Hopefully, our highly competent trade negotiators and
Minister Freeland will get this right. If they don’t, it will become an
extremely controversial issue domestically. Michael Geist and I will ensure
that this the case.
I was encouraged to hear an elderly sounding senior
named Doris from Saskatchewan on Cross Country checkup last Sunday September 2, 2018 who was concerned explicitly about
dairy, copyrights and patents. Yes – she used those words and clearly
understood them. She said – twice if I correctly recall – that if Trump didn’t
make appropriate concessions, he could just “shove it”. From the lips of an elderly woman from
Saskatchewan That is the Canada that I’m proud of.
HPK
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