more on Copyright Reform Needs a Balanced Approach

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: David Lesher <wb8foz () nrk com>
Date: June 15, 2004 9:35:33 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] more on Copyright Reform Needs a Balanced Approach
Reply-To: wb8foz () nrk com


Dr. F:

Regarding the "can't find the license holder" dilemma on old
material....

The "Call before you dig" folks [frequently called Utility
Protection Services or one-call centers] collect all the queries
for a given region, and distribute them to the stakeholders:
telcos, power utilities, pipelines, etc. (In the goodolddaze,
this was via ASR-33's...).

The contractor/homeowner calls and gets a ticket number. The
license holder gets told; and if they opt out of responding, it's
my understanding that ticket is a hold-harmless if the digging
hits something.

I can see a similar system for old rights - a central
registry/notification system. If the author/holder responds, you
know who to negotiate with. If you get silence, you can assume
all the license holders are dead or don't care.

Of course Mickey Mouse et. al. is going to have a legion of IP
lawyers to respond to each request.


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