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What will enter the public domain in 2026?

publicdomainreview.org

351–360 of 383 posts

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#351

Total Copyright Death. I am unconvinced that we need copyright at all, if there are strong antifraud laws that prevent people or corps from saying "I am the originator" when not the case. Copyright stifles distribution, derivative work, and longevity

I agree (and we should not need patents either), but I think it might be better to prevent you from saying that someone else wrote something if they did not write it, or to say someone else wrote it if you modified it unless you also mention that it has been modified from the original version.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#352
post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think copyright shouldn’t exist at all, I think the general consensus in this topic has been that the length of copyright protection is longer than is considered reasonable. You don’t have to sell the prints if you don’t want to. But if someone else does fulfill that market demand by selling or giving away your photographs after those photographs have entered into public domain, that’s a win for all those who…

If I understand this correctly, your assertion is that me selling you a print 14 years ago (or 28) would now give you (or anyone) permission to put that on T-shirts and sell them despite that I'm still making prints of that photograph and selling it? Aside on this is that it disincentivizes me to display anything that I don't want to sell and think I can make money on during the copyright protected period. I have hun…

Your response has shifted the discussion to a different topic and doesn’t really address my original point. I was explicitly calling out situations in which an owner refuses to make their product available by any legal means and they can legally prevent anyone else from making it available if they so choose for the remainder of its copyright lifespan, which could very well terminate after I die.

As a human with limited lifespan, that sucks.

In your scenario, as an artist you are still actively selling and making money on your art. That’s great, and maybe there should be exceptions in copyright for late bloomers who found their popular stride way later in their career with their earlier art. Regardless, you’re selling it and now I can buy it, awesome. This solves my problem.

However if I saw a photo of yours, from say 35 years ago in a restaurant you did as a commission, and you don’t want to sell me that print (totally fair) but also you don’t want anyone else to sell the print to make money off your 35 year old work, then I’m kinda hosed. I’ve got no options. I just have to travel to that restaurant, hopefully still open and they kept the photo on the wall, or just use my good ole noggin to remember what it looked like.

Just feels fundamentally broken, ya know?

I’m sure you could argue “well it’s my art and I’m allowed to determine its availability.” Now we’re into morals and what’s good for humanity. I will say art is in my subjective opinion good for humanity. Keeping it locked away is bad.

I don’t recommend a binary all or nothing approach to copyright protections, I just think at a certain point it’s for the betterment of the people now, not for the individual.

I appreciate your healthy challenging to my ideals.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#353
post #288
post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Copyright must be registered. https://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/27-trips_04_e.htm Members shall comply with Articles 1 through 21 of the Berne Convention (1971) and the Appendix thereto. However, Members shall not have rights or obligations under this Agreement in respect of the rights conferred under Article 6bis of that Convention or of the rights derived therefrom. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Co…

I'm aware of the Berne Convention. It can be vacated. Sweeping changes have sweeping effects. I can't conceive of a way for any of this hypothetical copyright system to work (ie, to not fall completely apart) without requiring registration.

You know the UK and EU already operate such schemes for Orphan Works?

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/orphan-works-over...

All without registration...

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#354
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.

Why No ip is created in a vacuum. It’s built on the ideas and concepts that came before it. It’s built on the shared open culture that we all own.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#356
post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In practice, there was not a Hitler estate - the government of Bavaria (a state in Germany) took ownership of the copyright.

...did they exercise it?

Rather the opposite, they disallowed anyone from printing copies

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#357

Something about this page doesn't seem to work for me. Clicking the tiles doesn't do anything. It's not ad-blocker-related, I disabled those to test.

If you want to skip to December 31st, you can enter the following into your browser console to make all the tiles/doors openable:

  const elements = document.querySelectorAll(".countdown-calendar__door");
  elements.forEach(element => {
    element.classList.add("will-open");
  });

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#358
post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because once you make information available to the general public, you have no way to control what the general public does with that information. (This is the reason why DRM failed.) (In general, my proposal is more in context with things like movies, TV shows, music; situations where in the past anyone could make a DVD/CD player that could play any DVD/CD, anyone could sell any DVD/CD by buying into the patent pool.…

The same copyright laws apply to all things that are copyrightable regardless of medium. Anything that can be put into a fixed medium, be it print, digital recording, film. Such a proposal needs to take into consideration everything that is copyrightable rather than just literature or film productions... but also software and photographs. --- 50 years after publication date. If you want to license it before then for…

You're getting far too defensive, and are missing the point that I'm making about fair use.

Then perhaps let me explain what I mean by fair use:

For example, I'd like to write an ebook reader that can give me an AI summary of the last chapter that I read, or give me a quick AI based summary of who a character is on the page that I'm reading.

Fair use means that I don't need to negotiate with every publisher and every author, or negotiate with Kindle to be able to access their content.

This is why we need compulsory licensing; it makes a middle ground between the exclusive control that you have when you create something, and the eventual entry into public domain.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#359
post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because once you make information available to the general public, you have no way to control what the general public does with that information. (This is the reason why DRM failed.) (In general, my proposal is more in context with things like movies, TV shows, music; situations where in the past anyone could make a DVD/CD player that could play any DVD/CD, anyone could sell any DVD/CD by buying into the patent pool.…

The same copyright laws apply to all things that are copyrightable regardless of medium. Anything that can be put into a fixed medium, be it print, digital recording, film. Such a proposal needs to take into consideration everything that is copyrightable rather than just literature or film productions... but also software and photographs. --- 50 years after publication date. If you want to license it before then for…

Let me oversimplify

Current system: exclusive control for a period of time, then public domain.

My proposal: exclusive control for a period of time, then compulsory licensing (for fair use), then public domain.

Makes sense?

The point of compulsory licensing is to preserve fair use.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2026?

#360

> works by people who died in 1955 70 years. After death. The rules have to change. 70 years is way too long.

>70 years is way too long. Objectively, why? It's in our lifetimes, I'd say it's just about right.

Nobody can create derivative works from anything that was created while they were alive.
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