What will enter the public domain in 2024? • Hacker News Board

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2024?

#21

Post by jerf » Tue, Dec 12, 2023, 7:36 PM UTC

sp0rk wrote: post #6

yk wrote: post #3

The mouse via Steamboat Willie is scheduled to enter public domain? Guess we can look forward to quite eventful three weeks before the end of the year, while Disney is frantically trying to prevent that outcome.

It's my understanding that they still retain a lot of control over Mickey Mouse indefinitely because he is trademarked as the face of their company.

That's almost the most infuriating thing about their copyright grabs; it hardly even gets them anything of interest. They're not making any money on the actual Steamboat Willie movie. We're still a ways away from anything of even modest commercial interest from Disney entering the public domain, and even when Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs does finally come into public domain, I can't imagine it meaningfully affects their bottom line. The ability to roll into a store and just buy it isn't going to meaningfully affect Disney. Meanwhile, they still have all the trademark control, which itself means you can't really do anything to Steamboat Willie that would "offend" Disney. (I'm going to just leave that vague for now.)

Meanwhile, to keep this at-best modestly interesting historical film locked up for those last few marginal drops of IP, they've kept the entire rest of the culture locked up. Hell of a cost society pays just for that. I'd almost rather we just grant Disney copyright in perpetuity if it would shut them up and leave the rest of the culture alone.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2024?

#22

Post by hinkley » Tue, Dec 12, 2023, 7:36 PM UTC

TonyTrapp wrote: post #11

yk wrote: post #3

The mouse via Steamboat Willie is scheduled to enter public domain? Guess we can look forward to quite eventful three weeks before the end of the year, while Disney is frantically trying to prevent that outcome.

They probably realized by now there is not much value left in that old version of Mickey. It's the newer self of Mickey (different looks and character) that brings in the money, but even that is becoming less relevant these days, I think? That's why they have bought so much IP which appeals to more people than Mickey Mouse.

Someone pointed out to me that Winnie the Pooh brings in more money than Mickey, and his copyright is just about the same timeframe. Everyone assumes The Mouse is what Disney is shitting bricks over and it's just as likely it's the silly ol' bear instead.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2024?

#23

Post by SirMaster » Tue, Dec 12, 2023, 7:37 PM UTC

yk wrote: post #3

The mouse via Steamboat Willie is scheduled to enter public domain? Guess we can look forward to quite eventful three weeks before the end of the year, while Disney is frantically trying to prevent that outcome.

Disney spent the last decade or so growing their business (through large acquisitions) to where Mickey is now just small fraction of their worth. So they likely don't really care anymore.

Plus it's only the old, old design of Mickey, not the current version they have been using for awhile that looks more normal to most people these days.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2024?

#24

Post by joshlemer » Tue, Dec 12, 2023, 7:37 PM UTC

qwertthrowway wrote: post #7

If something is in the public domain, is it still accessible for copying or can companies still profit off of selling public domain material? For example, if I “pirate” a public domain text published by some company, am I in the wrong?

IANAL but my understanding is that public domain material can be published in a copyright protected form, yes. For instance, Beethoven's 5th symphony is in the public domain, but if a publisher starts selling the sheet music for it, then that content itself is still protected. So any contributions they've made such as annotations or formatting, cover art, etc are protected but the underlying content is not.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2024?

#25

Post by bluGill » Tue, Dec 12, 2023, 7:37 PM UTC

mod50ack wrote: post #17

ginko wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would be the New Zealand connection of Tolkien (other than the peter jackson movies)?

There's none. But the validity of a copyright of a work is dependent on the place in which you're applying the law, not on the place where the author is from (except when applying the rule of the shorter term). Tons of works are in the public domain in one country, but not another.

The oldest still in effect copyright I know of is from 1611: the King James translation of the bible is still copyright of the crown in the UK. No other country recognizes that copyright.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2024?

#26

Post by 5636588 » Tue, Dec 12, 2023, 7:37 PM UTC

qwertthrowway wrote: post #7

If something is in the public domain, is it still accessible for copying or can companies still profit off of selling public domain material? For example, if I “pirate” a public domain text published by some company, am I in the wrong?

I had a similar question before reading Moby Dick. I noticed it was being sold online, although inexpensive, which made me wonder. It turned out the English text is in the public domain, and anyone can profit from it. So, why did the publisher charge for it? I wanted to read it in my native language, Polish, and the translation was not in the public domain. Additionally, I wanted to easily upload it to my Kindle, so I also paid for convenience. I know this not fully answers your question, but wanted to share my experience.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2024?

#27

Post by bluGill » Tue, Dec 12, 2023, 7:40 PM UTC

mod50ack wrote: post #12

qwertthrowway wrote: post #7

If something is in the public domain, is it still accessible for copying or can companies still profit off of selling public domain material? For example, if I “pirate” a public domain text published by some company, am I in the wrong?

You can sell public domain materials all you want. And whenever anyone else copies stuff in the public domain, even if they copy it from your copy, they're not infringing copyright.

But be careful as when someone publishes something public domain they often have things that are not public domain in their version. They can "fix" errors, add artwork, introductions and so on.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2024?

#28

Post by coldpie » Tue, Dec 12, 2023, 7:40 PM UTC

qwertthrowway wrote: post #7

If something is in the public domain, is it still accessible for copying or can companies still profit off of selling public domain material? For example, if I “pirate” a public domain text published by some company, am I in the wrong?

Very good question! Not an IP lawyer, but I believe the gist of it you may copy the original work, but not any sufficiently transformative derivative work, as that would gain its own copyright. So you could copy the text of a public domain book and re-publish it yourself, yes. You could also sell your copies for $10/ea, just like the publisher you're copying from is doing, or give them away for free, or whatever you like.

The tricky bit is what its "sufficiently transformative" to gets its own copyright. Probably simply text printed in a book is not, so I think you'd be OK scanning and distributing such a book. But if the publisher added new footnotes or illustrations or cover art or a forward, etc, that would still be covered under its own copyright and you would have to remove them. And I could see an argument that a certain printing style (maybe a choice in font or page layout?) could be transformative, but I think that starts to be quite a stretch.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2024?

#29

Post by HWR_14 » Tue, Dec 12, 2023, 7:40 PM UTC

tiffanyh wrote: post #19

Will software become “public domain” over time?

Yes. In the US this happens 95 years after the initial creation of the software. Many other countries match this time period. Other countries may recognize a shorter copyright, but I believe no country will recognize a longer one.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2024?

#30

Post by jerf » Tue, Dec 12, 2023, 7:40 PM UTC

tiffanyh wrote: post #19

Will software become “public domain” over time?

Yes, the foundation of all software licensing is copyright law and as such all such licensing becomes null and void once it is in the public domain.

However, given that the copyright horizon is only up to 1928 in the US, you've got a ways to go before that is even theoretically a concern.

There was a window of time in which works had to be registered to have a copyright, which is where some of the later surprisingly-public-domain works come from, when the registration wasn't done or wasn't renewed properly. It's possible that some software in that era could be unregistered. However, I'm having a bit of trouble finding a good term for that era and so I can't quite look it up to see if it overlaps a period of time in which software might exist. Any help appreciated from respondants.

Of course, for that to even matter, someone has to have a copy of the software to actually put into the public, and software utility without hardware to run it is pretty limited.