[GA - FAILED] Public Domain Act

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Public Domain Act
Category: Education and Creativity | Area of Effect: Artistic
Proposed by: Oateria | Onsite Topic​

The World Assembly,

Acknowledging that creators of visual media, audio media, and writings are made copyright in order to allow the original creator to gain recognition and compensation for their work,

Noting that public domain allows a work hard to obtain due to copyright holders refusing to publish the work to a larger level, or multiple copyright holders not being able to agree on a fair release of a work to gain a wider release, as well as inspiring other media creators in their own work,

Hereby:

1. Defines "public domain", for the purpose of this resolution, as a work that has been released for a period of time that decidedly would be long enough for the creator of said work to profit off of it, then being unable to be claimed as copyright and allowed to be publically sold and shared without the threat of a lawsuit.

2. Mandates member states to recognize the period of time under copyright as not more than 65 years after the work's original publishing year, but not less than 20 years after the work's original publishing year.

3. Allows any and all peoples within member states to sell, share, repurpose, and/or reuse the work freely after the copyright's expiration without threat of prosecution.

4. Requests member states to waive the copyright period if the previous copyright holder had relinquished copyright, such as a copyright held by a company that went out of business and did not sell or otherwise give the copyright to a successor, allowing the general populace the chance to experience a potentially obscure work without the possibility of being prosecuted by an unknown copyright holder.

5. Gives creators the right to void a copyright they previously made, therein releasing the work into public domain, ideally by notifying the member state's equivalent of a Copyright Protection Office.

6. Encourages member states to celebrate its nation's public domain works in a part of its culture.
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Note: Only votes from TNP WA nations and NPA personnel will be counted. If you do not meet these requirements, please add (non-WA) or something of that effect to your vote.
Voting Instructions:
  • Vote For if you want the Delegate to vote For the resolution.
  • Vote Against if you want the Delegate to vote Against the resolution.
  • Vote Abstain if you want the Delegate to abstain from voting on this resolution.
  • Vote Present if you are personally abstaining from this vote.
Detailed opinions with your vote are appreciated and encouraged!

ForAgainstAbstainPresent
01010
 
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Overview
This resolution seeks to forcibly make copyright holders release their works within a very specific time period of 20 years to 65 years. It also "requests" member states to strip intellectual property from a "company that went out of business and did not sell or otherwise give the copyright to a successor", and to encourage creators to release their works into the public domain.

Recommendation
The proposal has several major issues. Requiring member states to forcibly remove copyright after a certain period deviates from (real life) practice (which reserves such rights to nations) and having a specific time period also creates issues for role-players due to variations in the definition of time. Stripping intellectual property (including copyright) from a business if it goes "out of business" also fails to follow bankruptcy law practice (in real life), when patents are frequently the most valuable parts of a bankruptcy (Nortel and Kodak, for example), and encouraging copyright to be released into the public domain also means discouraging artists and other content creators from creating valuable works. In short, we believe the resolution has not been drafted with current international practice in mind and creates problems which appear not to have been well considered in advance.

For the above reasons, the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs recommends a vote Against the General Assembly Resolution at vote, "Public Domain Act".
 
Against. This was submitted with minimal discussion, and Section 3 fundamentally misunderstands how IP laws work -- generally, enforcement is sought by the originator of said work in a civil court, rather than a "prosecution".

The definition of "public domain" is also incredibly complicated, and I don't understand what it's saying. Finally, the set years micromanage member nations, failing to take into account factors such as economic state/system that may affect how long a member nation may want to allow copyright for.
 
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Against. Ditto the comment from Magecastle above (rare to hear this line from me). Plus significant issues on bullet 5 (when did bankruptcy law have anything to do with copyright law)? The time period is also bizarre, if the US wants to keep extending the copyright of Mickey Mouse because it feels like it, it should be permitted to do so. Making an artificial timeframe also breaks all the sci-fi RPs that don't use earth years.
 
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Against

Probably some good points raised already in this thread, but I can't get past the first paragraph without it being incomprehensible and so I shall leave my own commentary there.
 
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Abstain

While it may be micromanaging, I'm not opposed to the concept of the legislation. The US continuing to protect Mickey Mouse's copyright in perpetuity as discussed is problematic and a failure through crony capitalism. However, the criticisms brought up here are fair and so I'll abstain for now.
 
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