2018 Is the Last Year of America's Public Domain Drought (vice.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Happy Public Domain Day, every-some of you! In New Zealand and Canada, published works by artists who died in 1967 -- Rene Magritte, Dorothy Parker, John Coltrane, and many others -- have entered the public domain; Kiwis and Canadians can now freely distribute, perform, and remix a wealth of painting, writing, and music. In Europe, work published by artists who died in 1947 are now public domain. In the United States, well, we get nothing for the 20th year in a row, with one more to go. Our public domain drought is nearly old enough to drink. American copyrights now stretch for 95 years. Since 1998, we've been frozen with a public domain that only applies to works from before 1923 (and government works). Jennifer Jenkins is a clinical professor of law at Duke Law School, which hosts the Center for the Study of the Public Domain. In an email she explained what changed and why nothing has entered American public domain for two decades. "Until 1978, the maximum copyright term was 56 years from the date of publication -- an initial term of 28 years, renewable for another 28 years," she wrote. "In 1998, Congress added 20 years to the copyright term, extending it to the author's lifetime plus 70 years, or 95 years after publication for corporate 'works made for hire.'"

Comments

Re:And suddenly...

[Anonymous Coward]

And some wonder why there's so many who don't respect copyright.

The original deal was reneged upon and the public got nothing in return on each extension.

Re:And suddenly...

[rock_climbing_guy]

I did read his "Communist Manifesto". I thought it was interesting that he did specifically dismiss the idea that this economic ideas, if implemented, would lead to laziness. IIRC, I think that he said that people do have a drive to work and to create.

But I think he missed something important. I agree with Marx that laziness is not the problem, but I think he missed another important problem with his economics. The problem is that to implement Communism, you must demand that all individuals submit to a central authority and subsume themselves into a system. Some critics go so far as to say that such a system is inherently violent and repressive because it cannot tolerate individuals deviating from their assigned role in the system. Either way, the problem, as I see it, is that people are individuals and they don't just want to work and create, but they want to work and create in a way that expresses their individuality. To be forced to assimilate into a system in which they have no individuality is completely out of line with man's nature.