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Sherlock lives in public domain, US court rules

theguardian.com

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Re: Sherlock lives in public domain, US court rules

#31

Post by yakk0 »

hackiavelli wrote: post #14
Shivetya wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am actually not for Mickey entering public domain, he is still representative of a very active and well known company. There are certain characters in the Disney domain that would be wholly out of place anywhere else. Whereas book characters from long dead authors are a whole different matter. While I think estates should be able to protect the rights of the estate for a period of time the fact that no new content…

I believe existing IP law already covers this. Disney still maintains exclusivity over Mickey as one of their trademarks (and will forever). It's the Steamboat Willie shorts themselves that would be going into the public domain when the copyright expires.

A good example is the Fleischer Superman cartoons. No one disputes that DC (and Warner Bros.) owns Superman, but these cartoons have all entered the public domain.

Re: Sherlock lives in public domain, US court rules

#32

Post by vidarh »

rayiner wrote: post #17
mattmanser wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then you don't understand why copyright was created. It's not there to give forever and ever protection. It's there to allow you to get some money before society, which made your product worth something in the first place, can incorporate it into culture where it belonged in the first place. Disney themselves love using other people stories constantly, but no-one can use theirs for extreme amounts of time because the…

That may have been why copyright was created, but over time, the justification has evolved, at least in Europe, into one based on the moral rights of the author. My personal opinion is that copyright should never expire. Think about it: you can have an indefinite government granted monopoly over land, something you didn't create, something that existed before you and will exist after you, but you have weaker protecti…

> That may have been why copyright was created, but over time, the justification has evolved, at least in Europe, into one based on the moral rights of the author.

It's interesting that you bring this up, as in many European countries, moral rights of the author are explicitly separate from copyright:

You can assign copyrights, but not moral rights. I believe that distinction stems from France, but I'm familiar with it from Norway, and variations of it is widespread throughout Europe.

For example, you typically have a legal right to have your name on a work, regardless of copyright. You also typically have a legal right to have your name removed from the work if alterations are made that affects the integrity of it, or that may be detrimental to the creators reputation (e.g. imagine someone deciding to alter key sentences in your political treatise to make it mean the opposite of your original), again irrespective of copyright.

So the protection of a creators moral rights does in Europe explicitly not require a wider interpretation of copyright.

Re: Sherlock lives in public domain, US court rules

#34

Post by bane »

Some real absolutely timeless classic stories are available in the public domain right now. If I had more time, money and passion, I'd be the RMS of the public domain. In my mind it's the free-est a work can possibly be. Unencumbered by licensing or copyright (or copyleft) considerations. You like it? Use it for whatever you want in whatever way you want.

One of my friends was looking for something to read, had an old kindle but didn't really have any money to pay for anything. I pointed her towards these absolute classics which kept her occupied for months, and then she passed them down to her kids. She now has a kindle full of more books than she can possibly read, all for free. And her children are now benefiting from this as well. The last time we spoke, her son was enjoying romping across Mars in the "Barsoom" series, a series of books I grew up enjoying immensely. Even while looking for these I was stunned how many freaking awesome works are out there in the PD.

(most of these have ready-to-go kindle versions)

All of the Oz books (yes, there is more than 1 as I was delighted to find out) - http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/42

E.R. Burroughs, which gets you the Barsoom series, Tarzan and a handful of other fantastically great adventure reads http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/48

Even better, Verne, which gets you adventure, sci-fi and more - http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/60

A huge collection of Doyle works, Sherlock is a big piece, but he wrote tons of others. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/69

A collection of old Science Fiction monthlies - http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=astounding+sto...

The indomitable works by Dumas - http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/492

An entire classic bookshelf of Rudyard Kipling - http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/132

Jack London, who I grew up reading as a child and loving - http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/120

Stevenson - http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/35

And that's just the Gutenberg project. You can dive into several Library of Congress's worth of books, magazine and other literature at archive.org, a well so deep, it's easy to get lost and never find your way back to the same place again. And also happens to have the best on-line e-reader ever made. (Note: not all of these have fallen into the PD, but Archive.org treats them like it's from a world where they are in the PD, demonstrating the power of the idea).

https://archive.org/details/texts

but does have an almost 3,000 item Children's library https://archive.org/details/iacl, mostly of scans of original prints which are amazing on tablets.

The Harvard Classics https://archive.org/details/harvardclassics

And these astonishing collections

https://archive.org/details/comics

https://archive.org/details/imslp

https://archive.org/details/magazine_rack (which includes 196 issues of OMNI magazine https://archive.org/details/omni-magazine and 103 issues of Galaxy https://archive.org/details/galaxymagazine, 300 issues of Starlog https://archive.org/details/starlogmagazine)

And almost 1,500 scans of various Pulp Magazines https://archive.org/details/pulpmagazinearchive

Several libraries' worth of Computer Magazines (11,000 issues!) https://archive.org/details/computermagazines

And finally https://archive.org/details/sciencefiction

Re: Sherlock lives in public domain, US court rules

#35

Post by jvreeland »

melling wrote: post #12

Is this only the English version? I read somewhere that translations are derived works and hold a different status.

IANAL (or that experience with copyright) but, it probably depends on the country and how it was translated. A translation of Clash of Kings to Spanish in the US for example would be considered a derivative work. A translator would have been hired by the publisher (or similar party) and created with permission from the original copyright holder who would then retain a copyright over the Spanish copy, although probably the same copyright. Translating without the permission of the copyright holder as far as I'm aware is against US copyright laws. I imagine it's different if you translate something without a current copyright, a translation of Beowulf for example may be eligible for copyright. This is just extrapolation from my limited knowledge on the subject.

Re: Sherlock lives in public domain, US court rules

#36

Post by vidarh »

melling wrote: post #12

Is this only the English version? I read somewhere that translations are derived works and hold a different status.

Yes, there is generally a separate copyright in the translation. I'm not aware whether/how common exceptions from that apply depending on jurisdiction. But most places you should be able to do a new translation from the original and be ok.

Re: Sherlock lives in public domain, US court rules

#37

Post by Spooky23 »

bane wrote: post #34

Some real absolutely timeless classic stories are available in the public domain right now. If I had more time, money and passion, I'd be the RMS of the public domain. In my mind it's the free-est a work can possibly be. Unencumbered by licensing or copyright (or copyleft) considerations. You like it? Use it for whatever you want in whatever way you want. One of my friends was looking for something to read, had an ol…

Thanks for a great post. My family will have lots of good stuff to read when we go on vacation!

Re: Sherlock lives in public domain, US court rules

#39

Post by jordigh »

TylerE wrote: post #38
jordigh wrote: post #33

I find it cute that the British-born Holmes is in the public domain in the US, but the true-blooded American Mouse is not.

Why is this shocking? Sherlock predates Mickey by 41 years.

No, the Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes was published in 1927. Steamboat Willie is from 1928.

Copyright law in the US is basically built around Mickey Mouse. Sherlock Holmes seems to barely make the cut into public domain.

Re: Sherlock lives in public domain, US court rules

#40

Post by wahsd »

Spooky23 wrote: post #37
bane wrote: post #34

Some real absolutely timeless classic stories are available in the public domain right now. If I had more time, money and passion, I'd be the RMS of the public domain. In my mind it's the free-est a work can possibly be. Unencumbered by licensing or copyright (or copyleft) considerations. You like it? Use it for whatever you want in whatever way you want. One of my friends was looking for something to read, had an ol…

Thanks for a great post. My family will have lots of good stuff to read when we go on vacation!

I can't recall the exact process, but you can bookmark a certain Project Gutenberg page on the Kindle that puts basically all of their works at your fingertips.

May I also plug Distributed Proofreaders (http://www.pgdp.net/), which is a major source of primary source documents to Project Gutenberg. It is the power of the global community of internet citizens who digitize scanned documents that are difficult or impossible to OCR.

To anyone looking for inspiration and creativity and innovation; that is where you will find those stories that are obscure and hidden and have not been rehashed ad nauseam.

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