Interesting Links for 3-1-2011

[andrewducker]

• The joy of making model aircraft
  (tags: toys funny)
• UN defends human right to WikiLeaked info.
  (tags: wikileaks un)
• What Could Have Been Entering the Public Domain on January 1, 2011 if 1977 copyright laws were still in effect.
  (tags: copyright law culture publicdomain publishing)
• The New Year's resolutions of various tech companies. I love Apple's.
  (tags: technology funny)
• New clues uncover how 'starvation hormone' connects insulin, fat levels and cancer.
  (tags: hormones health fat insulin diabetes)
• Why Star Wars is not Entertainment (although it sure as hell entertained me).
  (tags: scifi sf starwars movies)
• Women working in technology discuss whether they would recommend the profession to other women.
  (tags: career feminism work computers technology)
• The Female Character Flowchart
  (tags: feminism)
• Bill Sienkiewicz speaks about Big Numbers #3
  (tags: BillSienkiewicz alanmoore comics)
• Good Lord, government ministers want stable house prices. Altogether too sensble.
  (tags: housing uk government)
• Microsoft not allowing NES emulator on WP7 phones - this kind of thing is why I won't be getting one.
  (tags: mobile_phones microsoft censorship)
• Calories, fat or carbohydrates? The problems with current diet studies
  (tags: science health food diet nutrition research)
• Jesus not actually related to Mithras (or Horus, or Dionysus).
  (tags: religion christianity jesus)

Comments

[innerbrat]

Wait, does US copyright law really dictate when works by British creators become public domain?

Doe US copyright law apply to the whole world or something?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

The Berne Convention says that US copyright law applies to US works, worldwide. Other countries' rules apply to their works, worldwide, as well - but the EU made it life-plus-70 in 1993 - a decision made, in part, because of the way the US does things.

So it's not that US law applies to other works, it's that it applies to US works everywhere, and other countries' laws apply to their works everywhere, and changes to US law in this matter tend to get reflected in other countries' laws sooner or later.

(The real reason for the continual copyright extension is simple: Mickey Mouse. The laws in the US will continue to change, to extend copyright indefinitely, every time Mickey Mouse approaches the Public Domain. Why? Because Disney is a megacorp and they own senators.)