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What will enter the public domain in 2026?

publicdomainreview.org

151–160 of 383 posts

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, the term of copyright protection is quite long; but the amount of works that are legally 100% in the public domain and even Internet-accessible in some form but simply languishing in obscurity and have yet to be made comprehensively accessible to the general public (via digitizing, transcribing, indexing and comprehensive classification) may well be orders-of-magnitude larger! There's a whole lot of low-hanging…

Not sure why the amount of works in the public domain has any relevance to how long copyright protection is. Seems to me like they're two orthogonal issues.

Because every-time this comes up it is the same Mickey mouse complaints over and over. If you're young and your read this the first time I'm sure you're outraged.

Meanwhile there are 1000's of works that people are free to take. Better yet, there are 1000's of works that will be destroyed and not preserved that are open that should be preserved and used.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, the term of copyright protection is quite long; but the amount of works that are legally 100% in the public domain and even Internet-accessible in some form but simply languishing in obscurity and have yet to be made comprehensively accessible to the general public (via digitizing, transcribing, indexing and comprehensive classification) may well be orders-of-magnitude larger! There's a whole lot of low-hanging…

Part of the reason for that is precisely that copyright is too long so works get lost or forgotten before they enter the public domain.

No, it's because people don't care about it. If it had value they would.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#153
I just noticed the site contains a very misleading description of what a Community Interest Company is. They are not necessarily not for profits (a certain proportion of profits has to be used for the stated purpose) and they are not as tightly regulated as charities (they do not get the tax breaks charities do either) .

That is not to say this particular company is a bad thing (I have not problem with people getting reasonable remuneration) but if you want to know (e.g. if you are considering donating) its something you need to find out on a case by case basis.

This is not well known in the UK, let along outside the UK.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#154
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you noticed how the abundance of fan fictions have completely killed famous book series? Me neither.

What fan fiction?

This is not an endorsement of the work, but there's Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. I hear 50 Shades of Gray is another fanfic that went mainstream.

A book nerd could come up with a much longer list, but I know there's a ton more illegal unlicensed! Harry Potter fan fic.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#155

Interesting case in point is Argentina. The Falklands War happened in 1982, so well within some people's lifetimes. I learnt a few years ago that photographs and writings from Argentina from 1982 are already out of copyright. Photographs from the UK are not, and won't be until seventy years after the deaths of the people who took them. So total contrast between the two jurisdictions and reflected in publications abou…

Keep in mind in Argentina public domain works are not free (free as beer) of use, you have to pay a fee to the government, for example if you play Beethoven music in your short film or any work you created.

This is likely going to change since the organism responsible for collecting the fees is undergoing a big restructuring.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see that How to Win Friends and Influence People is on there. I'm looking forward to the inevitable And Zombies adaptation coming in 2027.

So is the Diary of Anne Frank, that will surely get some sort of zombie remix in poor taste, I’m sure.

There's already the new musical, Slam Frank, which gives the story of Ann Frank the Hamilton treatment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slam_Frank

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why the amount of works in the public domain has any relevance to how long copyright protection is. Seems to me like they're two orthogonal issues.

Because every-time this comes up it is the same Mickey mouse complaints over and over. If you're young and your read this the first time I'm sure you're outraged. Meanwhile there are 1000's of works that people are free to take. Better yet, there are 1000's of works that will be destroyed and not preserved that are open that should be preserved and used.

I'm not sure what the argument is here.

That because there's a large corpus of public domain works, then the long copyright protection is ok? That people want a short copyright protection because they're done with everything in the public domain?

Would that also imply that if the number of public domain works gets large enough, then the duration copyright protections should also increase?

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#158
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why on earth would you do that? Why should copyright ever be extended after the fact for already being profitable? That only benefits huge corporations in the same way copyright already does, to the detriment of everyone else.

It's basically a compromise. Many people hate the current situation (90 years for works-for-hire, life + 70 for people), and would love to return it to something like 14+14. But is that realistic? The money behind not doing that is massive, and I think most of the population have been conditioned by forever copyright to a degree that there will never be populist support for it. But there might be populist support for…

I don't think the problem is most people being against shorter copyright terms but simply them not caring. I don't think a compromise with the devil will change anything about that.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not just consume public-domain IP to begin with? The "Classics" of Western literature used to be viewed as the necessary foundation of a proper education in the humanities; and today you could add "classic" works from other literary traditions (India, China, etc.) for an even more well-rounded approach.

Because then you miss out on a lot of more recent content that'll become a classic in the future. Also, translations are copyrighted. There's 500 year old public domain stuff that's been translated in the past few decades and those aren't in the public domain. Older translations may be, but even going back 30 years, people would translate every foreign work in the style of the King James Bible. Translations in natura…

> even going back 30 years, people would translate every foreign work in the style of the King James Bible. Translations in natural, modern speech are an oddly new thing.

And yet, people used to read those older translations just fine. It's just a matter of literary style, it doesn't really impact the understanding of the text.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> IP is not real. It is a term we should avoid. Your opinion does not make that fact.

The opinion that it is real is also not a fact. We're not talking about physical things. They're made up rules about made up things. It can all be different if we agree to make it so. IP isn't a concept that has existed in all cultures for all time. It's not inherent to group dynamics or humanity. It's not even a concept that's fully respected by cultures that claim to care about it.

I'd push even further and say it encroaches, if not outright invades the conversation about who owns what data. Both are terribly muddy waters, to be sure, but something worth hashing out since we live in an age of information that is both accessible and under threat, so the real question is where do we want to collectively steer this ship?
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