Live data from Hacker News

What will enter the public domain in 2022

publicdomainreview.org

111–120 of 235 posts

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2022

#111
post #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.

I'd like for something like 10-20 years after the creator's death -- but even then, that gets complicated because if the owner is a corporation, then that work will probably never enter the public domain.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2022

#112

Winnie-the-Pooh !

OT: does anyone else remember the free Winnie-the-Pooh ebook that Apple gave away for free when they first released their ebook software and store for iPad?

At some point that disappeared from my library, and does not show up in my purchase history either. Did Apple pull it for some reason?

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2022

#113
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…

Wouldn’t it be easier to use a simpler mathematical formula? First renewal is fee^2. Second is fee^3, etc. Balance the fee and the term, but eventually you’ll hit a point where the renewal fee is a trillion dollars. If Disney wants to pay off the national debt to keep copyright on “Steamboat Willy” I’m not going to complain.

That avoids the income reporting aspect and allows people to make straightforward time-based predictions on when something enters the public domain.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2022

#114
post #17
post #15

This design mimics a traditional advent calendar. I think it's kind of cute.

It's a really bad UX though. There should at least be a link to just a standard list of things.

The list would be only one item long today, because they're only enabling one item per day. In that way it reminds me of the old web dev advent calendar slash blog, 24 Ways, which was really popular in the days when IE7, IE8, and Chrome 1.0 were exciting browser releases.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2022

#115
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Year 8: 8-5 = 3, so 3% of revenue (from that year or from the previous 3 or 8 years?) 3% of the last three years of revenue (first 5 years you keep everything) Year 11: 11-5 = 6, so 6% of revenue (from that year or from the previous 3 years?) Previous 3 years. 14 : 9% of revenue ... 103 : 100% of revenue Check your math. :). Year 103 would be 103-5=98% 106 : 103% of revenue Same math issue. > If minimum revenue is $1…

Looks like I got the 3 and 5 years mixed up and started subtracting 3. I fixed the original post.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2022

#116
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you handle things without revenue?

Good point. Minimum fee of $100?

That seems really low. The point of copyright is to incentivize people to create more art, so We The People can experience more art. If you're not going to sell your art, why are we enforcing your rights at all? I'm not saying you don't have a legitimate reason to share your art with all except one person you hate, or to keep it locked where no one can see it, but I am saying that there's no need for Us The People to use our government apparatus to help you with that.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2022

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is no reason someone should be able to make one hit song and then never work again. It makes people want to do it, hence providing the incentive for more creation. Frankly, if someone writes a good song then I'm happy they'll do well off it, we need more good songs and that song will last a lifetime for the listeners too.

> It makes people want to do it, This is red herring. I doubt you could find a single musician who would tell you that they wouldn't be creating if they don't get a lifetime to exploit the work. Further, you can see proof of this through history. Copyright used to be much shorter and people still created. Most people who create, especially people who make good music, do it because they love it, not because they will…

Art must be distributed to be appreciated. There will be demand for it: customers, each furiously waving their cash offer.

Someone is going to render that art for consumption in exchange for that cash. My conviction is the artist should have right of first refusal to grow rich with that cash. I confess this conviction is a moral conviction, driven by a sense of fairness, not efficiency. “The suckers compulsively produce it for free,” doesn’t find much purchase with me.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2022

#119
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 m…

“ Are there any countries that enforce copyright as much as the US do?” I’d say definitely yes. Most western countries are very similar in this regard.

> Most western countries are very similar in this regard.

I suspect the Venn diagram of countries with similar copyright terms, and countries with trade agreements requiring them to have similar copyright terms, would overlap almost 100%.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2022

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they expecting to live 100 years from the point of writing? Till death of the author seems most sensible.

What about the creator who has a wife and family and passes away a day after publication in an accident? Sure, that example is a bit constructed and imo the death+50 years or 100 years are way too long, but I see value a) in the fact that artists need some time to finance their work and b) that some degree of inheritance is good.

And what about the creator that has a husband and family and passes away a day after publication in an accident?

The same rules that apply to a survivor's pension could apply to copyright, although I don't think that is a good solution myself - I think it will get messy with copyright transfers made in life, decisions made by owners/publishers/media/regulators that might de-prioritize the printing/marketing of that copyrighted material, etc. Even during the life the copyright creator, copyright rights are no substitute for a survivor's pension. In line with another answer below:

"What does the average person have to do to provide their family this kind of security? I don't think copyright needs to do double duty as life insurance and it is mostly not helpless widows [widowers] that are benefitting from it."

Post reply on HN