

Library of Congress: Copyright is killing sound archiving - gasull
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/10/11/library-of-congress-3.html

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Alex3917
Not just sound archives, but film as well. Almost all of the silent films shot
in Ithaca have been lost because they were left to rot in their containers due
to copyright laws.

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nkassis
Something I don't understand is that the Library of Congress is in charge of
writing the guidelines on copyright, do they not have any leeway to be able to
stop or reduce enforcement of the law in this case?

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blahedo
Well, they can't change the law, for sure. And they're not the ones that
control enforcement. They have some leeway to interpret open-ended parts of
the law, but there aren't many of those left.

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oiuytrdrfghj
In the UK there are copyright libraries - you must give a copy of your work to
these libraries if you want the government to prosecute copyright for you. The
British library (equivalent of LoC) is one.

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billswift
It may have changed, but to register your copyright, you send (I think two)
copies to the LoC with the registration. The issue isn't whether LoC gets a
copy, the issue is their ability to backup or transfer the information in the
event the media deteriorates or for other risks.

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Groxx
Sadly, even if they get this ironed out for their purposes, I doubt it'll
translate to increased freedom for consumers. The LoC isn't a _person_ , so
any legislation will probably be special-cased for them.

Nice to see them recognizing and admitting _some_ problems around the super-
locked-down world of audio / media, however.

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pyre
It's something to wave in the face of the pro-Copyrighters that ride a
campaign of "more restrictive copyright for a brighter future."

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lukev
It surprises me there isn't a gentleman's agreement that the Library of
Congress can make and store as many copies as they want for the sole purpose
of archiving, and that the copyright holders don't press charges since it's
not as if they'd loose anything by it.

Seriously, the LOC should just go ahead and do it. Aren't copyright rulings
supposed to include damages? Any competent judge would rule zero damages on
the off chance that someone _did_ bring suit.

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eli
It's been a while since copyright lawsuits had anything to do with proving
actual damages.

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noonespecial
I never did understand why media companies weren't lining up to get their
works into the LOC. Hey, free archiving by what are ostensibly experts in the
field.

Lets face it, the "Disney Vault" is more moldy cardboard box and less giant
bank safe with mouse ears.

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siculars
I'm fairly certain that the "Disney Vault" is well preserved, guarded,
insulated and insured. Unfortunately our children and our children's children
will be paying for Cinderella's dry cleaning for a long time to come.

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lefstathiou
I understand this could be an issue for older films/audio but in the modern
era i think the internet is doing a fine job archiving everything that ever
existed.

