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What will enter the public domain in 2026?

publicdomainreview.org

131–140 of 383 posts

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#131
post #60

The length of copyright is absurd. Corporations have hijacked a concept that should exist on human timescales. Ideally, a child could legally provide their own spin on IP they consumed by the time they reach adulthood. But also, people need to make a living. I actually think the original 14+14 year copyright is the right balance. It gives people time to make their profits, but also guarantees the right of people to t…

I love the original 14+14. I’ve heard proposals for exponentially growing fees to allow truly big enterprises to stay copywritten longer, like 14+14 with filing and $100, another 14 for $100,000, another 14 for $10M, another 14 for $100M. That would allow 70 years or protection for a few key pieces of IP that are worth it, which seems like an okay trade off? So many ideas better than the current regime.

I like it because Peter S. Beagle definitely didn't get screwed over enough in this world, in this other better world he would take it good and proper.

https://www.cartoonbrew.com/law/the-last-unicorn-author-pete...

Aside from that your way to help big corporations make sure they could keep their prime pieces of worthwhile IP just is, something else, let's put something in so big corporations can continue screwing people over if they think it is worthwhile, but the people who made something probably won't be able to afford to keep control, unless their last name were Rowling obviously.

finally, as always have to point out that while the argument about the purpose of copyright that is the stand of the U.S is not that which holds in the rest of the world, and as such it seems unlikely to translate to other countries - specifically EU ones - lowering their copyright rules and thus seems unlikely to have any practical effect since Media is an international business nowadays.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think would diminish independent author rights. Quite often, a novel will become popular only decades after publishing, and I think the author should be able to profit on the fruits of their labour without wealthy corporations tarnishing their original IP, or creating TV shows and the link with no reperations to the creator. Fantasy book are a good example. A Games of Thrones was first released in 1996 but had midd…

> A Games of Thrones was first released in 1996 but had middling success. It was only after 2011 that the series exploded in popularity Yes - the catalyst was the amazing (early on) TV series, and not the book. > IP law was originally to protect artist and authors from the wealthy, but now it seems to have the opposite intent. In the case of GoT, if the TV series had never happened then the popularity wouldn't have h…

Nah it was popular among people who read books long before the tv show.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you can't because 57 new sequels were published the week before.

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

What fan fiction?

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#134

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.

When the "classics" were decided to be "the classics" (by who? why? on what authority?) a lot of them were newer than Mickey Mouse is today.

At some point I looked into it, and if the laws were what they are today, Disney wouldn't have been able to make Alice in Wonderland (1951) without paying Lewis Carroll's (d. 1898) estate until 1968. The Little Mermaid (1989) was safe though, since Hans Christian Andersen died in 1875 (so his copyright would have expired in 1950).

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The funny thing is that Mickey Mouse barely registers for kids these days. We went to Disney World this year and Mickey had a bit part in some of the shows. Elsa, Moana and the other modern characters were the real stars.

It is not even figuring in the Disney logo.

Not exactly true, they have hacked the end of the copyright for SteamBoat Willie, by adding a few second extract of it, as part of the actual "Walt Disney Animation Studios" actual logo.

They cannot sue anymore for copyright infringements, but they may do it the registered trademark way, by saying "It's in our logo !".

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#136

The length of copyright is absurd. Corporations have hijacked a concept that should exist on human timescales. Ideally, a child could legally provide their own spin on IP they consumed by the time they reach adulthood. But also, people need to make a living. I actually think the original 14+14 year copyright is the right balance. It gives people time to make their profits, but also guarantees the right of people to t…

Why not have different copyright laws for corporations vs individuals? I'm no expert, just a dumb question I had. We could keep the copyrights longer for individuals, and add the 14+14 thing for corporations.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#137

in my old neighbourhood, there was a couple where the husband creatd the intro-jingle for one of the major local news shows. they are playing his jingle for more than 20 years now. he became so wealhty that he could afford to tear down his old house, move temporaly to a hotel with the whole family, while the new villa was built on the old ground.

This always blows my mind about the US - the fact that individual cities and states are large enough markets people can become enormously wealthy catering to their locality. A staggering difference from Europe.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#138
post #89

The length of copyright is absurd. Corporations have hijacked a concept that should exist on human timescales. Ideally, a child could legally provide their own spin on IP they consumed by the time they reach adulthood. But also, people need to make a living. I actually think the original 14+14 year copyright is the right balance. It gives people time to make their profits, but also guarantees the right of people to t…

> Ideally, a child could legally provide their own spin on IP they consumed by the time they reach adulthood. Why though? Do we really need that many more commercial attempts at Star Wars and Harry Potter? (I do think copyright times are too long, but I do wonder what a "good timescale" would be, and what the benefits and arguments would be.)

Shorter copyrights would lead to less beatings of dead tauntauns or thestrals.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#139
post #60

The length of copyright is absurd. Corporations have hijacked a concept that should exist on human timescales. Ideally, a child could legally provide their own spin on IP they consumed by the time they reach adulthood. But also, people need to make a living. I actually think the original 14+14 year copyright is the right balance. It gives people time to make their profits, but also guarantees the right of people to t…

I love the original 14+14. I’ve heard proposals for exponentially growing fees to allow truly big enterprises to stay copywritten longer, like 14+14 with filing and $100, another 14 for $100,000, another 14 for $10M, another 14 for $100M. That would allow 70 years or protection for a few key pieces of IP that are worth it, which seems like an okay trade off? So many ideas better than the current regime.

Corporations will just turn things into trademarks, like Disney did with Mickey Mouse.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#140
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I would need to choose only between UBI and high taxes on the rich I would choose the latter, because it would reduce the risk of entrenching the differences or giving too much power to a few. I find more important what is the society's perceived "success" in life. For US (one of the two countries in the study), as a foreigner, I perceive that "success" is considered to be "the self made man". So people feel valua…

>If I would need to choose only between UBI and high taxes on the rich I would choose the latter There no need to be exclusive, and actually having concentration of wealth in a few hands is already a social construct. A society can also thrive without high income disparities. Taxing the rich is just taxing on what was captured from the non-rich.

>captured from the non-rich.

What do you mean by this? The economy is not zero sum, it is possible for everyone to get "wealthier", even if the spread increases.

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