And this is another reason why...

[strredwolf]

The Vatican/Holy See has just claimed perpetual copyright on anything Pope.

That's straight from the Holy See.

No word on such things as Fair Use, or even existing copyright law! Which... is a problem, in 95% of the countries.

If I take a US-centric view of this, there's a whole boat-load of problems:

1. Copyright lasted for 35 years when the USA was founded.  The Holy See has been in existence well before that (at least 2000 years ago).  Even using the current limit of 95 years, their claim of copyright has been lost to the ages.  It is at most public domain.
   
2. That said, the Holy See hasn't even been defending it's copyright on the legal front.  To do it now will only earn rejection on the court front -- something that the Holy See has already said it would be under all jurisdictions. So that's two towards public domain.
3. Plus, since the copyright is so broad and yet so restrictive on use, in the US it can't help but be deemed invalid.

I believe there are similar objections in most countries there now.  So for the Holy See to pull this stunt makes me think they're heading more into the looney bin.

Comments

[kusanagi-sama.livejournal.com]

Wonder what affect this has on movies like "Angels and Demons"?