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Sherlock Holmes and the Copyright Tangle

Posted by kdawson on from the making-lawyers'-eyes-roll dept.

spagiola passes along a New York Times piece on the copyright travails of Sherlock Holmes. "At his age [123 years], Holmes would logically seem to have entered the public domain. But not only is the character still under copyright in the United States, for nearly 80 years he has also been caught in a web of ownership issues so tangled that Professor Moriarty wouldn't have wished them upon him."

4 of 290 comments (clear)

  1. Time to revert back to the 1790-1922 laws by mykos · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If IP owners are going to be such absolute children about this, maybe we should revert back to the old law.

    It was once legally agreed upon that 14+14 years was an adequate amount of time to commercially exploit your copyright. With today's digital distribution and rapid-fire publishing houses, does it really need to be a HUNDRED years?

  2. Re:The copyright cash cow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It doesn't fail with them. They just don't care. They get paid to write more long-lasting, restrictive copyright laws, so they do it. All those "for the good of culture" arguments are just smokes and mirrors, so it's less obvious.

  3. Re:where does the 2023 date come from? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    120 years.

    One. Hundred. And. Twenty. Fucking. Years.

    That's just obscene.

  4. Re:Think like a politician by El_Muerte_TDS · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If copyright is extended jobs are lost. You don't need to hire people to create new stuff because you can still earn money from the ancient stuff.