Copyrights Bill [Passed]

[Sam Spade]

I will need to a little research into the Copyright statute, but for at this moment my intuitions are to support BrandonH's amendments, ask to amend the bill to get rid of Clause 6 (in BrandonH's amendment) and support any amendments that put us within the Berne convention.

Copyright law is one of the few things that I think there should be a fairly strong international consensus on, just FYI.

[Sam Spade]

Amendment 1: Aye
Amendment 2: Aye
Amendment 3: Nay

[Sam Spade]

If you get us any information about decent amendments in the Sonny Bono legislation, Ernest, I'll be happy to amend my vote as such.

[Sam Spade]

Sorry, Ernest, I didn't realize that was the relevant legislation.

I'm changing my vote on the second Amendment to Abstain, and I'm going to just read through the Act specifically to see what's really going on, though I trust your summary.

[Sam Spade]

I would hope that Ernest will provide us some amendments to Clause 5 that was already passed.  ty

[Sam Spade]

Aye.

[Sam Spade]

Aye.  And I wish to take over introducing Ernest's amendments, if necessary.

[Sam Spade]

1 Aye
2 Aye

[Sam Spade]

Lewis, Section 5 (which repeals Section 102 of the DMCA) does this per Ernest:

Title I: WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties Implementation Act
This part does two separate things.  Section 102 brought the U.S. into alignment with WIPO on the treatment of sound recording under copyright law.  Section 103 dealt with copy protection systems by adding chapter 12 to title 18.  The parts dealing specifically with requirements for VHS and 8mm video tape players are effectively obsolete already, the rest of chapter 12 makes circumventing copy protection systems illegal itself regardless of whether it used to copy a protected work.

BrandonH's link above is also helpful.

[Sam Spade]

Current Tallies

Striking Section 7
Aye: 4 (Sam; DWTL; PBrunsel, Lewis)
Nay: 4 (Ebowed; Brandon, Al)
Yet to Vote: 1 (Phil)

Striking Section 5
Aye: 2 (Sam; PBrunsel)
Nay: 5 (Ebowed; Brandon; DWTL; Al)
Yet to Vote: 2 (Lewis; Phil)

Roughly about 2 days left to vote on the amendments.

[Sam Spade]

According to this...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WIPO_Copyright_and_Performances_and_Phonograms_Treaties_Implementation_Act

it appears like Section 102 only modifies US copyright law to include works produced in the countries signing the afore-mentioned treaties.  I have no idea which countries those are.

[Sam Spade]

EDIT:  You don't get 24 hours to change your vote when an amendment passes.  Screw-up!

[Sam Spade]

With 5 votes in favor and 4 against and being there are only 9 Senators at the present time, the amendment to strike Section 7 passes.

With 3 votes in favor and 5 against and being there are only 9 Senators at the present time, the amendment to strike Section 5 fails.

[Sam Spade]

I'm going to leave 24 hours open for more amendments.  After that, I will bring a motion for cloture (14 days have passed since bill was on Senate floor).

[Sam Spade]

Aye.

[Sam Spade]

With 6 votes in favor, 2 not voting, 1 seat absent and 1 seat vacant, the motion for cloture passes.

We now move to voting on final passage of the bill.

Please vote Aye, Nay or Abstain on the following legislation (the final text of the bill):


Copyrights Bill

1. It shall be the policy of the Republic of Atlasia that once granted the terms of copyrights should neither be increased or reduced.

2. As of the date of the passage of this Act, any change in the term of copyright of a protected work caused by a change in the law after the date of first publication shall be null and void and the applicable term shall be that called for under the law at the time of first publication.  Any royalties due the copyright holder resulting from such a nullified change in the copyright term for a work published publication after the expiration of the original term the copyright and prior to the date of the passage of this Act shall still be due the copyright holder.

3. As of the date of the passage of this Act, the term of a copyright granted by the Republic of Atlasia shall be the minimum term required under Article 7 of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works as in force as of the date of the passage of this Act.  Works for hire shall be treated as anonymous works save that moral rights under Article 6bis of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works shall be held by the hirer and not by the anonymous author(s).

4. No person shall face more severe penalties for the use of computers or the Internet in copying, sharing, or distributing copyrighted music, movie, television, text, image, or software files than if computers or the Internet had not been used.

5. Section 102 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 is repealed.

6. Section 103 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 is repealed along with any amendments made by later law to chapter 12 of Title 17, Copyrights.

7. Title V of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 is repealed along with any amendments made by later law to chapter 13 of Title 17, Copyrights.

[Sam Spade]

Although this is not a perfect bill (Section 5 should be gone), it is a great improvement on present copyright law and I thus vote....

Aye.

[Sam Spade]

With 6 votes in favor, 2 not voting, 1 seat absent and 1 seat vacant, the bill has passed the Senate.

It is now presented to the President for his signature.

[Sam Spade]

Fine by me.  Bring a lawsuit.