Policy Committee Proposals on Copyright Term

This page is for the Policy Committee to collate proposals for and discussions about the official policy on copyright term. Please post your ideas in Board index > Party Policy Development > Policy Committee Activities > Term of copyright (formulating proposals) .

Provisional options (from least extensive to most)

 * [A] no policy on copyright term
 * [B] 15 year term
 * [C] 10 year term (as per the policy wiki page)
 * [D] 5 year term
 * [E] abolish copyright (requires 75% majority)

Provisionally, option E would require a 75% majority to pass because, as far as we are aware, it goes beyond the policies of the Pirate Party of Sweden, and the members of Pirate Parties International. This requirement is only provisional however. You can post your thoughts on this, or any aspect of Policy Committee procedure at Board index > Party Policy Development > Policy Committee Activities > Policy Committee announcement/procedure 

Ideas from discussions
Compatible with international pirate movement: 5, 10, or 15 years. Individual pirate parties mention terms of 5, 10, 15, and 20 years, as well as general intentions to reduce copyright, and in some instances no apparent policy on copyright term. However the Uppsala Declaration states "expires well within one generation".

Public benefit: up to 15 years. Research suggests a term of about 15 years is economically optimal (with regard to commercial works?), so a term of up to 15 years would benefit the public good (in relation to commercial works, and at the expense of imposing restrictions) (Pollock, 2007) (Pollock, 2009). There is a concern that keeping copyright but reducing the term to 5 years could harm F/OSS (Stallman, 2009). A term of 10 years may be a decent compromise between promoting public benefit and not being unduly restrictive (assuming copyright is to cover non-commercial use only).

Political expediency: A term of 15 years would allow us to cite economic optimality. A term of 10 years would maintain consistency with our current policy. A term of 5 years may risk casting us as 'extremists'.