Live data from Hacker News

What will enter the public domain in 2022

publicdomainreview.org

81–90 of 235 posts

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2022

#81

In addition to its annoying layout, this site bizarrely decides to mix public domain works from the various different major copyright systems together (life + 50 years, life + 70 years, the old American system of 95 years). For example, Nabokov's first novel in Russian, Mary, is listed because it was published in 1926; he died in 1977 which means in virtually every non-American country, that work will still be copyri…

Are there any countries that enforce copyright as much as the US do? I have no idea when a book legally enters public domain in Russia, since any book I can think of is a couple clicks away. Literally anything: Nabokov, Rowling, etc

Edit: come to think of it, it's pretty universal. Libgen and bookfi are not exactly Russian. There's probably little difference whether a book is public domain unless you want to make a movie.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2022

#82
This comes up every year so I ask a question:

If you could fix copyright, how would you do it?

Here is what I would do:

1. All works must be registered in a government registry.

If it's not in there it's not copyrighted. If you want to register a work from before the law passes, you have to prove you own it under the current system. This would solve the orphan works problem -- if no one can prove they own it, it becomes public domain. Basically, ownership should be recorded like actual property with a proper chain of title. It would be published on a public ledger.

2. You must renew your registration every three years. The fee for renewal will be X% of the revenue from the work, where X = years since first registration - 5 (edit: With a minimum fee of $100 to discourage hoarding useless IP). First renewal is at 8 years. Your registration fee would be recorded on the public ledger.

If you want to continue to derive benefit from your work you have to pay for the privilege. After 105 years it will obviously no longer be worth it, but probably long before that. This would be reported like income taxes -- you self report your profits but if the government thinks you're cheating, they can audit you. If you have multiple works in one product (think Marvel movies) then all revenue goes to the oldest work (that way you can't avoid the fee by putting new and old characters together).

If you don't renew, the work goes to the public domain.

How would you fix copyright?

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2022

#83
post #82

This comes up every year so I ask a question: If you could fix copyright, how would you do it? Here is what I would do: 1. All works must be registered in a government registry. If it's not in there it's not copyrighted. If you want to register a work from before the law passes, you have to prove you own it under the current system. This would solve the orphan works problem -- if no one can prove they own it, it beco…

> It would be published on a public ledger.

Waiting on the first mention of a possible usage for the blockchain in 3… 2… 1…

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2022

#84

Copyright law has damaged global culture. Who benefits when the copyright to Winnie-the-Pooh takes almost 100 years to expire? Only the companies who sell licensed merchandise. Think about how many fan works we’ll never see because we bizarrely decided to grant creators a monopoly on whatever they create, even if the work enters the public mythology like with Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. The people of the country…

Do you think we should have shorter time spans? How short? Should star wars be public domain? Harry Potter?

It's not an easy answer. Not everything is a hit right away... Some things like Song ofnIce and Fire only became hits decades later.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2022

#85
post #82

This comes up every year so I ask a question: If you could fix copyright, how would you do it? Here is what I would do: 1. All works must be registered in a government registry. If it's not in there it's not copyrighted. If you want to register a work from before the law passes, you have to prove you own it under the current system. This would solve the orphan works problem -- if no one can prove they own it, it beco…

How do you handle things without revenue?

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2022

#86
post #82

This comes up every year so I ask a question: If you could fix copyright, how would you do it? Here is what I would do: 1. All works must be registered in a government registry. If it's not in there it's not copyrighted. If you want to register a work from before the law passes, you have to prove you own it under the current system. This would solve the orphan works problem -- if no one can prove they own it, it beco…

> It would be published on a public ledger. Waiting on the first mention of a possible usage for the blockchain in 3… 2… 1…

If you separate blockchain technology from the idea of distributed systems, it would be a great technology for the problem. The government would be the only user who could write to the blockchain, but you'd get a beautiful record of ownership!

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2022

#87
post #82

This comes up every year so I ask a question: If you could fix copyright, how would you do it? Here is what I would do: 1. All works must be registered in a government registry. If it's not in there it's not copyrighted. If you want to register a work from before the law passes, you have to prove you own it under the current system. This would solve the orphan works problem -- if no one can prove they own it, it beco…

How do you handle things without revenue?

Good point. Minimum fee of $100?

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2022

#88
post #82

This comes up every year so I ask a question: If you could fix copyright, how would you do it? Here is what I would do: 1. All works must be registered in a government registry. If it's not in there it's not copyrighted. If you want to register a work from before the law passes, you have to prove you own it under the current system. This would solve the orphan works problem -- if no one can prove they own it, it beco…

How do you handle things without revenue?

From what I understand of OPs rules, it could remain under copyright indefinitely (you don't care if the fee is 100% of your revenue if your revenue is 0).

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2022

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you handle things without revenue?

From what I understand of OPs rules, it could remain under copyright indefinitely (you don't care if the fee is 100% of your revenue if your revenue is 0).

Yeah that was a flaw in the system. I updated the rules to have a minimum fee.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2022

#90
post #82

This comes up every year so I ask a question: If you could fix copyright, how would you do it? Here is what I would do: 1. All works must be registered in a government registry. If it's not in there it's not copyrighted. If you want to register a work from before the law passes, you have to prove you own it under the current system. This would solve the orphan works problem -- if no one can prove they own it, it beco…

Year 8: 8-5 = 3, so 3% of revenue (from that year or from the previous 3 or 8 years?)

Year 11: 11-5 = 6, so 6% of revenue (from that year or from the previous 3 years?)

14 : 9% of revenue

...

103 : 98% of revenue

106 : 101% of revenue

If minimum revenue is $100, you wouldn't pay that much until year 103. But would it remain at $100 at year 106 onwards?

Edited: fixed math to subtract 5 years instead of 3.

Post reply on HN