🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <slrn8p370f.l9v.philh@comuno.freeserve.co.uk> philh@comuno.freeserve.co.uk (phil hunt) writes:
>>    In 1995, the European Union extended the copyright term for all of its
>>    member states from life of the author plus fifty years to life of the
>>    author plus seventy years.  As the world leader in the export of
>>    intellectual property, this has profound effects for the United States
>>    if it does not extend copyright term as well.
>>
>>    European Union countries, which are huge markets for U.S. intellectual
>>    property, would not have to provide twenty years of copyright protection
>>    to U.S. works and the U.S. would lose millions of dollars in export
>>    revenues.  Extending copyright term to life of the author plus seventy
>>    years means that U.S. works will generally be protected for the same
>>    amount of time as works created by European Union authors. Therefore, the
>>    United States will ensure that profits generated from the sale of
>>    U.S. intellectual property abroad will come back to the United States.
>
>If true, this is a valid reason. (It also means that the people running the
>EU are not doing their jobs properly, but that's another issue).

So, why not find out if it is true.  (And there is no reason to believe
that it isn't, and it should be relatively easy to check.)

Then you have a valid reason for what Congress did what it did, and you
should stop critizing them and blame the EU for starting the thing.

I'll be waiting to hear what you find ...