Protecting Public Domain Dedications

Convinced that while domestic copyright owners have fundamental moral rights to their work, they should be free to waive those rights before the copyright would normally expire, allowing others to freely share and build on that work, and

Believing that, when copyright of a work is waived by its creators, foreign member states should reciprocate that waiver in the interests of fairness…

The General Assembly hereby:

defines a "copyrighted work" in a member state as a work created within, and protected by copyright in, that member,

declares that anybody who owns the copyright of a copyrighted work in the member state it was created in may irreversibly waive the copyright of that work in that member, so long as all the owners of that work's copyright agree to the waiver,

requires that all members other than the member it was created in immediately and irreversibly waive whatever copyright they may have recognised of any work whose copyright has been waived in the member it was created in pursuant to Article b, and

encourages members to follow Article c in the case of:

    works created in a non-member state whose copyrights have been waived in that non-member, and

    works created in a member state which does not recognise copyrights for domestically-produced works (so long as all the creators of that work agree to such a waiver), but

clarifies that this resolution:

    merely sets out legal procedures for members and does not advise any copyright owner to sustain or waive their moral rights,

    does not require any member to institute copyright protections, and

    does not prevent any member from allowing the copyright of a work to be transferred to another entity, so long as all its current copyright owners agree.

More info here: NationStates • View topic - [AT VOTE] Protecting Public Domain Dedications

This resolution is now up for vote.

Bai Lung will vote AGAINST.

Protecting Public Domain Dedications was passed 9,492 votes to 3,373.