Argentina Proposes a 100-Year-Plus Copyright Extension on Photography | Electronic Frontier Foundation

"A new front has opened in publishers' global war on the public domain. Lawmakers of Argentina's ruling party are proposing a vast extension of copyright terms on photography—from 20 years after publication to 70 years after the photographer's death. That means that the term of restriction of photographic works would be extended by an average 120 years. The law would extend copyrights on works retroactively, so a lifetime of photos that are already in the public domain would be re-captured by copyright. That would bring about a huge amount of legal uncertainty over works that have already been shared, remixed, sold, and modified in innumerable ways. If this bill passes, many tens of thousands of photographs that have been uploaded into cultural archives, including Wikipedia, may have to be erased from the Internet or else they could face civil, or even criminal prosecution failing to do so. This is why Argentinian digital rights organization, Fundación Via Libre has launched a campaign to fight back against this destructive term extension. They sent a letter to Argentinian lawmakers earlier this week, urging them to conduct proper, public-interest impact assessment and open it to public debate before moving forward with a bill that would have such sweeping impacts on the cultural commons. Now, EFF is one of 38 digital rights and access to knowledge groups urging Argentinian lawmakers to drop this proposal. The letter states (translated from Spanish) ..."