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What will enter the public domain in 2024?

publicdomainreview.org

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Re: What will enter the public domain in 2024?

#71

Post by Zambyte »

knome wrote: post #66
Zambyte wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A book in the public domain can be sold, so probably by selling books. Or other jobs. This seems really interesting to me as someone who does not write books full time.

They established early copyright because publishers would just print copies of books and never pay the authors at all. The middlemen aren't going to do it voluntarily, and if they do, they'll be undercut by those that don't.

Authors can sell their own books even if someone else publishes it. Especially if it's published into the public domain.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2024?

#72

Post by jl6 »

furyofantares wrote: post #63
SirMaster wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I was shocked to learn my 7yo daughter associates Disney with Mickey and Minnie. She's watched like one Mickey cartoon on Disney+, and she's seen way more Disney stuff than that. Never been to Disneyland. But somehow to her, Disney === Mickey/Minnie. Branding is wild stuff.

Mickey’s silhouette is still used in various Disney logos, so it’s not too wild a connection to make.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2024?

#73

Post by jcranmer »

jerf wrote: post #21
sp0rk wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> even when Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs does finally come into public domain, I can't imagine it meaningfully affects their bottom line.

Given that Disney is infamous for its practice of rereleasing its older films periodically and otherwise making them completely unavailable (the "Disney Vault"), it seems that they have a business model which is fully predicated on copyright exclusivity.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2024?

#74

Post by 4death4 »

whycome wrote: post #70
jawns wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do authors make a living by giving away all their work for free?

How much do you want for that comment? Someone who spends years perfecting a recipe has no similar protections, yet they've certainly done work. Their options for making money off of it comes from maybe associated works, or a restaurant, or hiding the recipe. Maybe authors will have to read works out loud? Create different types of value in a world where we will have AI generating stories en masse?

The recipe itself isn’t protected by copyright but the rest of a cookbook is. E.g. their writings about the recipe and the photography. Usage of one’s likeness is also subject to protection. E.g. you can’t market a cookbook on Amazon as Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa even if the contents of the book are exactly her recipes. I don’t think it’s a good analogy.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2024?

#75

Post by jjulius »

jcranmer wrote: post #62
kevinmchugh wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been obvious for a few years that Disney wasn't going to pursue extending copyright anymore. It would have been politically difficult at any point in the last few years as the Senate does so little.

To expand on this point a bit, Ars Technica has some articles on the copyright extension saga. In 2019, when works started going into the public domain again in the US, they published https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/01/a-whole-years-wo... ; in 2018, they published https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/01/hollywood-says-i... which had interviews saying that there were no plans for another copyright extensi…

Where it also gets tricky is the creation of additional Steamboat Willie content - if you want to create and publish new Steamboat Willie stuff, you'll have to be crystal clear that it's not coming from Disney. If it looks like it's coming from Disney, that's when they can step in.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2024?

#76

Post by Buttons840 »

whycome wrote: post #70
jawns wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do authors make a living by giving away all their work for free?

How much do you want for that comment? Someone who spends years perfecting a recipe has no similar protections, yet they've certainly done work. Their options for making money off of it comes from maybe associated works, or a restaurant, or hiding the recipe. Maybe authors will have to read works out loud? Create different types of value in a world where we will have AI generating stories en masse?

They're not making a living from that comment, and they are worried that authors will not be able to make a living from their writings.

Taking a big step back, I guess that question is: Do we value people who write enough that we want some full time writers? We can then structure our society accordingly.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2024?

#77

Post by novosel »

jawns wrote: post #58
sirodoht wrote: post #56

What if we didn't wait for things to enter the public domain but instead they were born right into it? I have started a book publishing company that publishes new, public domain books only: https://laniakeabooks.org/

How do authors make a living by giving away all their work for free?

So, one writes a book to make a living?

You made that comment to make ends meet?

It is only "for free" if it has any value.

This is the gift economy, where reciprocity is just a special (restricted) case of it.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2024?

#78

Post by zare_st »

coldpie wrote: post #53
zare_st wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what abandonware was all about. If you don't support or sell the software any more, it becomes public domain. But it was a idealistic view not accounting for the future. Today you can run virtualized anything anywhere. The software companies can claim 80s software still being usable because they can deploy it that way. We considered that console game ROMs will become public domain because once the console life…

> That's what abandonware was all about. If you don't support or sell the software any more, it becomes public domain. In what jurisdiction? Definitely not the US or any of its major economic partners, at least.

In no jurisdiction, it was the motto behind abandonware movement.

All of laws, this one, IP laws, everything concerning software is far too simplistic.

Tho if you want to dance in the grey zone, universally I think it's worthless for a company to sue you when they can claim no damages. This is why old software piracy sites exist by a shovel. If site owner and hosting doesn't care about cease and desist letters and just routes them to spam, the lawyers sending them know they cannot actually mount a case. Else they have to explain how $0 of projected damages is worth court's time.

Re: What will enter the public domain in 2024?

#79

Post by temp112123 »

jawns wrote: post #58
sirodoht wrote: post #56

What if we didn't wait for things to enter the public domain but instead they were born right into it? I have started a book publishing company that publishes new, public domain books only: https://laniakeabooks.org/

How do authors make a living by giving away all their work for free?

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