Author Topic: Works that could have entered the public domain in 2014 (Read 1143 times)

Goober5000 · **on:** January 02, 2014, 04:11:57 am

http://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2014/pre-1976

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Current US law extends copyright for 70 years after the date of the author’s death, and corporate "works-for-hire" are copyrighted for 95 years after publication. But prior to the 1976 Copyright Act (which became effective in 1978), the maximum copyright term was 56 years – an initial term of 28 years, renewable for another 28 years. Under those laws, works published in 1957 would enter the public domain on January 1, 2014, where they would be "free as the air to common use." ... Under current copyright law, we’ll have to wait until 2053. And no published works will enter our public domain until 2019.

It's beyond any reasonable argument that the public interest would be much better served if such works as The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Cat in the Hat, Atlas Shrugged, The Seventh Seal, What’s Opera, Doc?, "Great Balls of Fire", and "Theory of Superconductivity" were in the public domain rather than locked up in IP purgatory. This isn't capitalism, it's corporatism.

Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution states the following (emphasis mine):

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To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

Anyway, read the linked article. It's informative.

S-99 · **Reply #1 on:** January 04, 2014, 12:20:43 am

Corporations have learned that as many popular things like cat in the hat and elvis are from the last century...they're all still ridiculously profitable.

AdmiralRalwood · **Reply #2 on:** January 04, 2014, 11:29:05 am

It's getting more and more ridiculous that Disney keeps lobbying to extend copyright every time Mickey Mouse looks like he might enter the public domain.

Aardwolf · **Reply #3 on:** January 06, 2014, 01:58:45 am

I take it this is the thread from which "enough of that" (feat. S-99 and Nuke) was split? Bah.

S-99 · **Reply #4 on:** January 06, 2014, 10:40:39 am

Yes. Me and nuke had some fun. Probably didn't need to say piratebay lines to top it off. I was making fun of how copyright can negatively affect the consumer. Making consumers re-purchase what they already own (recycling of profit?) and spying on movie watchers (i imagine new media centers that watch you watch tv checks to see if you're pirating stuff among just trying to get viewer demographics; of which case lawsuit for violation of copyright).