Welcoming 1927 to the Public Domain

But then Star Wars and Marvel would be public domain. Oh, the tragedy!

I think AI/ML will be a forcing function. More new media will be created every year than all of recorded human history.

They copyright office will cave under this pressure. They'll either say none of it can by copyrighted, which will be complicated -- who wants to prove which parts were AI-assisted? More sensibly, they'll just contract the copyright TTL. That's easy to calculate.

If this happens, it will have very interesting implications for Disney, Universal Music Group, et al.

Absolutely agree. 2003 was 20 years ago. More than enough time for creators to make their profits several times over.

> Most popular works from that year have made millions of dollars in profit

More importantly, they have made virtually all of their lifetime profit by that time. Rare exceptions and that tiny remaining dribble are weak justifications for longer copyright terms.

I think you mean, "copyright will be extended to 100 years shortly".

Well I think that will not mean anybody can use the character or create their own spin-offs I presume…? There surely is some kind of law that will allow Disney to sue anybody on the grounds they the character defines their brand identity or something similar..

"Working as intended"

Without reform It’s possible your grandchildren (or hypothetic grandchildren) won’t even be able to use those works to create their own.

Most places have settled on death + 70 years now, including the US. But in the US that doesn’t applied to works created before 1978, where it’s typically publication + 95 years.

It actually ends up being generally similar, but works created nearer the end of life of the creator tend to come into the PD earlier globally and later in the US. And the other way around for works created near the start of life. For example, some Agatha Christies are in the PD in the US now, but won’t be in the PD in other countries until 2046. But Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four has been in the public domain since 2020 in most countries, but won’t arrive in the US until 2044.

It looks stupid to have these many years but for a moment sit on the other side of the table. You created something amazing by giving significant part of your life, would you prefer to get paid only for 3 years? I think 30 years is good time to release works into public domain. In India, it's 60 years.

Or 0

3 years is silly. The books that most movies have been made in are older that 3 years. Even books have a life long than that. 25 years is more reasonable. I'm basing that on the fact (at least at one time) almost all books on Amazon were 25 years or newer(or older than 95)

>Sir Percy Hits Back - Baroness Orczy

That reminds me of "The Scarlet Pimpernel" - one of my favorite novels from school curriculum. Read it a few times after too. Didn't much like the sequels though.