What Could Have Entered the Public Domain on January 1, 2012?
web.law.duke.edu
web.law.duke.edu
"I Have a Dream" until 2038[1]. This is particularly frustrating because the copyright holders include the estate of the person who delivered the speech, but not the estate of the two other people who wrote it (and likely most of it) - not to mention the fact that, by any web-era definition, it was a public performance and also a 'general publication'.
"Happy Birthday" (certainly in the EU until 2016, and potentially in the US too until 2030 though this is disputed[2]).
There is also one movie - whose name escapes me now - which entered the public domain and was then put back under copyright protection subsequently.
In the case of "I Have a Dream", think of the societal cost of raising two generations of students without a complete copy of the speech in their textbooks (as is generally the case).
Alternatively, think of how a 2012 version of "I Have a Dream" would happen today. If hundreds of cell phone recordings of the speech were distributed halfway around the world within mere minutes after the speech, of what relevance would copyright protection be?
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_a_Dream#Copyright_disput... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Birthday_to_You
It looks like that got fixed:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2009/04/court-congress-ca...
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/01/supreme-court-gets-it-...
Congress has the authority to take old works out of the public domain, permanently.
While I completely agree that it is a shame that Dr. King's speeches are protected by copyright I really do not think that there is a great societal cost due to textbooks without a verbatim transcript. With the exception of the Gettysburg Address I can not think of any speeches that should be included verbatim in a high school social studies textbook. Textbooks have a lot of material to cover and summarize.
268 words total.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom— and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Quite possibly not there, due to space considerations, but there should be freely-accessible online sources of all major speeches. It's absurd that the "I Have a Dream" speech shouldn't be freely available to everyone.
America's "Fair Use" (defence) is not the only model in which copyright is managed and upheld.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/17/i-have-a-dream-spee...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/14/mlk-jr-i-have-a-dre...
Really. The maintenance of iconic symbols with commercial value is exactly what trademarks are for.
But no, instead they destroyed copyright. Then went to put criminal penalties on it. And ridiculous statutory penalties. Then they tried scaring the whole country with their BS. Multiple countries in fact.
If the public was given a choice, they'd lose immediately. Which is why they were so desperate to kill the trial balloon that the Republicans recently floated.
I've heard that all you really need to know to understand copyright law (at the congressional level) is that (works containing) Mickey Mouse will never (be allowed to) enter the public domain (through copyright term expiration).
Trademarks are supposed to be to indicate the _origin_ of goods or services. The use of an image of a mouse on a nursery wall is highly unlikely to create any confusion in anyone of sound mind that Disney are providing the service of that nursery - if there is a potential for doubt then a simple disclaimer can alleviate that (yes on the wall if necessary).
After copyright expiration of the original cartoons from which a Mickey Mouse like image might be copied there is no reason that a sane application of trademark law would prevent a nursery from using such an image.
Now "famous" marks often get special treatment but this swings both ways. If you don't use an actual Disney mark [as opposed to a simple image of one of their characters which isn't a trademark] then people know that it's not actually from Disney. Indeed just being affordably priced is sometimes all the indication that one needs.
However, it's not at all a surprise to me. I would note that I say "there is no reason that a sane application of trademark law would prevent a nursery from using such an image" (emphasis added).
I'd be OK with giving different terms to the different rights that compose the bundle of copyright rights. Make the derivative work right term for literary and artistic works very very long, but make the reproduction right term short. That would give the public the benefit of wide, affordable (or free) availability of literary and artistic works, without making them available for advertisers to use to rape the memory of my youth.
I honestly think that's a good idea, for what little my opinion is worth.
But yeah, I think the good of unlicensed reuse of characters is worth putting up with the bad.
Of course, I probably agree with you that it would be much easier to avoid making the distinction at all. I'm just trying to point out that, if someone insists on making the distinction, it's possible to draw the line exactly where I want it ;-).
And even if long copyright terms were retained for commercial purposes, shorter terms for non-commercial use, like what most of the OP discusses, is still something I want.
[1] Assuming most people are < 40 years old, without anything to back me up.
Then I realized that you could make an even better sounding argument like this: "Imagine if copyright was only 10 years. Look at all the works that would now be public domain: Seinfeld, Friends, The Batman Movies, etc. etc.". This argument will probably be even more persuasive for the people who liked the original argument, since works from 10 years ago are even more recognizable.
In other words, this argument isn't actually saying anything interesting - it's simply an emotional appeal. Why should or shouldn't copyright be 10, 20, or 70 years? Why is the 1978 law wrong? Why was it created in the first place? I don't know from this article.
Copyright term extensions are continually granted in the interests of the wealthy few, and not in the interest of the broader public.
The argument is summarized as "had congress not bent over in the face of lobbying influence this is what would be public domain today"
There's a second good argument that Congress ought not to extend the terms of works already created, since that is always just a giveaway to the copyright holders and never does anything useful for society.
The article is making the second argument, not the first.
It's not as wrong (i'm still against it) to extend copyright for new works, but this horrible law extended copyright retroactively for previously created works. There was no compelling reason for extending old works. It breaks all measures of fairness no matter how you approach it.
It's equivalent to having the banks extend your home loan by 30 years and saying you owe additional payments. You get nothing out of it. There is no trade. You get nothing and existing copyright owners get given additional years.
Arbitrary durations are arbitrary. Copyright term is one such arbitrary duration. You are right that there's no reason (other than the pre-1978 status quo) that the article shouldn't have used any other term -- 10 years, 5, 0, a million, etc. That doesn't invalidate the argument that copyright terms are presently out of balance.
Why is the 1978 law wrong? Why was it created in the first place? I don't know from this article.
The ongoing copyright debate is probably sufficient context to know the answers to those questions. This article can be considered to refer to those arguments implicitly. Also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Act_of_1976#History_...
To calculate when Casablanca specifically would enter the public domain would mean cross-referencing several laws, which I'll leave to someone else since it's all too likely there's an easy online tool that I don't know about.
I can not, with humor, get across how dumb that sounds to me. So I'll state it plainly. That's amazingly stupid. And it worked.
The issues are (A) that the expiration for copyrights (government supported monopolies) keeps getting moved further and further into the future, far beyond any date required to incent content creators, and (B) perhaps even worse, content that is completely orphaned, and is serving no commercial value to anyone, also can't be distributed because it's locked up on copyrights that nobody is interested in any more.
What makes you think that you should ever be able to take for free, something that someone else created?
I think a content creator should be able to place any copyright terms on their work.
But that's not the actual debate about copyright that is taking place in society. In other words, the problem you're talking about is not the actual issue.
Aren't you just suggesting a tax free way of passing money between generations of a family (as current inheritance is subject to taxation)?
Also doesn't this kind of thing just discourage the creation of new artistic works? If there are tons of big popular individuals and companies, then how is the little guy meant to make a splash?
Maybe not now, but there certainly was:
When I appeared before that committee of the House of Lords
the chairman asked me what limit I would propose. I said, "Perpetuity."
Actually, Sonny wanted the term of copyright protection to last
forever. I am informed by staff that such a change would violate
the Constitution. ... As you know, there is also [then-MPAA president]
Jack Valenti's proposal for term to last forever less one day. Perhaps
the Committee may look at that next Congress.
Sure, some creative people would like infinite copyright. Me, I'd like a pet giraffe.
The question is should society spend lots of money and effort providing me with a giraffe and Mary Bono with indefinite copyright?
Imagine talking to your next-door neighbor and saying "this is why you should chip in for the cost to enforce copyright forever". Can you do it? Will your neighbor really benefit?
In general, I'd like the government to stay out of managing my interaction with content creators, but, I will accept them granting a temporary monopoly to IP creators, so as to incent them to both (a) create, and (b) share their creations with me. That is the idea, of course, behind the Patent and Copyright.
I certainly don't believe that just because (to use one of a million possible examples), Apple happens to have "patented" the page-turning-process in a particular way, that they forevermore have the rights to page-turning in that form.
In the same way, I don't believe that someone who has written a story, forevermore has control over how that story may be used. Some reasonably temporary government enforced monopoly on the rights to copy/distribute is reasonable, but the US government has gone beyond what I think is reasonable. It's certainly gone beyond what was required to incentivize content creators to create and share their works with the public. And they've absolutely failed to manage the issues around orphaned works, which absolutely nobody benefits from being unable to copy/distribute.
What has, instead happened, is that the legislation that has become the law of the land (and, to some degree, infected other countries' laws as well) - has been written by lobbyists from Hollywood, and, with little public debate or benefit, been rammed down the public's throat.
I think that if I write something down, I should be able to say, "If you want to consume this content, you have to agree to certain conditions." I see copyright as the legal mechanism to enforce this. That's all there is to it.
I wouldn't mind if there is an exception for orphaned works.
People want to argue that what I'm suggesting would result in horrible consequences, but it just wouldn't. Take your story example. So what if I forevermore have control over a story I wrote? It just doesn't matter. So what if my decendants get rich selling it? Again, it just doesn't matter. But, hell, it's my story, I and the people I share it with should be able to institute any rules around its distribution that we mutually agree on.
You talk about the government staying out of the interaction between content creators and consumers, but that is exactly my position, whereas you are arguing that the government can force content creators to cede their works to consumers after a certain time has elapsed.
I don't think copyright can/should cover "an idea," only specific content.
Copyrights essentially ban almost all forms of derivative works -- thereby depriving society of the most important form of creativity.
Also, old works are mostly lost to society -- whereas if they were easily distributed they could compete as free works with contemporary copyrighted works, thereby driving the competition and thus quality up.
Whether or not you get to control distribution of the story you wrote, in fact, whether it is your story at all -- is subject to debate.
A world with short copyright terms (or perhaps even no copyright terms at all) might make some authors less rich -- and it might make the world of content available to everyone much richer, too.
That's like saying I force you to fall to the ground by not holding you up.
Works are inherently copyable. Copyright is an artificial monopoly which society spends money to create and enforce. It does so in order to get the benefit of encouraging creation of works. The whole goal is to have more works available as a public good.
This is exactly what the Constitution says:
>> To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.
If those works are made less useful to society by remaining locked up forever, there is less benefit to society, and less reason to spend money and effort creating artificial monopolies.
If it were shown that monopoly incentives were actually not very helpful in encouraging the creation of new works, copyright should be abolished. It would be a cost to society without a benefit to society.
Notice that the creator never enters as a concern here. Society shouldn't make rules to protect the income of specific groups, be they bricklayers, nuclear physicists, or writers. We should work together only for the common good. If you want to work exclusively for your own good, that's fine, but do it by yourself and stop trying to get the laws to serve you.
Society shouldn't make rules to protect the income of specific groups, be they bricklayers, nuclear physicists, or writers. We should work together only for the common good. If you want to work exclusively for your own good, that's fine, but do it by yourself and stop trying to get the laws to serve you.
I think that the proper purpose of government is to secure my individual rights, particularly property rights, so that I can pursue my happiness. Laws should serve me, and everyone, in that sense. (I also believe this brings the best overall outcome for society, but that's beside the point.)
I do not have any duty to "serve the common good." If we keep going towards that model, to the point that my own productive work is no longer productive for me, I will literally "go on strike" and just do manual labor to survive. (Or go to a more free country, if there is one.) That's not out of dedication to ideology, it's out of a need for psychological survival. I can't make myself work hard to benefit a society that is mainly just extractive of my production (i.e., bad for me).
As an aside, "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts" != promoting the "public good". This is a distinction the Founders would have been aware of. But the Constitution isn't perfect, anyway, so it hardly matters.
You can define anything equivalently as a right or an obligation. "The government should protect my right to own land" ~ "The government should provide soldiers (presumably funded through taxation) to evict other people from my land"; there's no qualitative distinction between property rights and e.g. a right to healthcare.
Copyright law does not make individuals more free, quite the opposite. It gives a small number of powerful organizations the power to control the much larger number of individuals who would want to create derivative works. There seems to be this weird blind spot on the political right where they're perfectly happy for people to be oppressed as long as it's not by the government. (Of course, the left has the opposite problem).
>I do not have any duty to "serve the common good." If we keep going towards that model, to the point that my own productive work is no longer productive for me, I will literally "go on strike" and just do manual labor to survive.
I hope this bluff gets called. Every aspect of modern life is made possible by others serving the common good. And frankly, society would be better off without the "creativity" of those who are producing works just for the paycheck.
There is. A rational person pursuing his own good simply wants to be protected from the initiation of force, whence arises "negative rights," such as property rights, and any other legitimate right (this was the original meaning of the word "right" in this context).
Any "positive right" (a right requiring the initiation of force) is not only qualitatively different (in that it requires the initiation of force instead of arising because the initiaition of force is barred), it is not a legitimate right.
Copyright law does not make individuals more free, quite the opposite.
Disagree.
It gives a small number of powerful organizations the power to control the much larger number of individuals who would want to create derivative works.
That's quite obviously untrue, unless you think that Time Warner owning Harry Potter counts as "control" or "oppression", or if you have a too-expansive view of copyright (e.g., conflating it with patents).
Every aspect of modern life is made possible by others serving the common good.
Most good aspect of modern life comes from people serving themselves; benefitng the common good is a nice side-effect.
And frankly, society would be better off without the "creativity" of those who are producing works just for the paycheck.
Really? That's an incredibly destructive and anti-life point of view.
It takes a perverse definition of force to say that when person B is living on land that person A claims ownership of, and person A has him forcibly thrown off it, that person B was the one who initiated force.
>That's quite obviously untrue, unless you think that Time Warner owning Harry Potter counts as "control" or "oppression
They have the power to prevent me, privately, behind closed doors, from writing my own stories with Harry Potter in and giving them to my friends.
But, at the very least, please elaborate on how your notion of property rights encompasses ideas. Please do explain how an idea, which can be copied at no cost and used to enrich the receiver, should be held in same esteem as a physical good which must be wrenched from your clinging little fingers.
Thank you. I consider selfishness a virtue. (However, contrary to what society has taught you, my selfishness does not hurt anybody else as long as I go about it in a rational way.)
Please do explain how an idea, which can be copied at no cost and used to enrich the receiver, should be held in same esteem as a physical good
I specifically said in an ancestor comment to this one that I don't believe the position I've taken on copyright would apply to "ideas."
Maybe I miscommunicated. I'm certainly not pushing for socialism or anything like it. I'm closer to libertarianism than anything. To me, the default answer for "should the government be involved in X?" is "no." To answer "yes," I want something pointing to either an "inalienable right", like "freedom from murder," or a clear public good, like "we all benefit if you aren't allowed to dump nuclear sludge in the storm drains."
I think the key thing we disagree on that I don't see copyright ownership as one of those inalienable rights, and you do. And I don't see indefinite copyright as a clear public good, either.
>> "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts" != promoting the "public good". This is a distinction the Founders would have been aware of.
I don't understand the distinction you're making. I quote again:
"To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."
Whose good is intended by said progress, if not society's as a whole?
If you said, "that of the creators," I think that's unwarranted. They could easily have said, "To protect the Inherent Rights of Authors and Inventors, by securing for All Time the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." But they didn't. And they specifically said "limited Times".
As to whether it matters, it's the only existing legal rationale for copyright in the U.S. You may argue that IP is an inherent right, but only a constitutional amendment could properly make that into law.
Sounds like I'm in good company. That makes me happy.
I think the key thing we disagree on that I don't see copyright ownership as one of those inalienable rights, and you do. And I don't see indefinite copyright as a clear public good, either.
First, I think that people should be free to make a contract that states, "I will let you read this thing I've written, if you agree to certain conditions" (and those conditions could be anything - don't write fanfic, don't distribute, you have to do 50 pushups, whatever).
Then, copyright is just the government saying, "For the sake of convenience, here is the default contract. If you want something different, you can always explicitly opt out of this, and optionally specify something different."
I'm really interested to see if you buy this rationale for copyright.
Whose good is intended by said progress, if not society's as a whole?
I think the intention is to "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts," which does benefit society, but indirectly. I think if the intention had been to promote the public good, they would have said "to promote the Good of the Public" :P
If you still think this is unclear, you're trying too hard (but let me know and I'll explain it differently.) Of course, you may disagree, but I want to make sure you understand what I'm saying.
As to whether it matters, it's the only existing legal rationale for copyright in the U.S.
True, I guess, but I'm not interested in how the current law can be interpreted ("legal rationale"); I'm interested in how things ought to be.
Copyright infringement isn't theft.
Creative works follow different rules though. The most successful ones become part of our shared culture and they permanently infect our brains. They become part of our jokes and our metaphors. You can't opt-out.
The most extreme example is Happy Birthday. Because of copyright, you can't legally take a recording of your child's special day and share it with others. It's a ridiculous situation, especially for such a basic song.
It's fine for the author to reap the rewards of their creation, but there needs to be some limit. 50 or so years is not asking too much.
As a training exercise, try find a work, any work, be that music, film, paintings or writing, and find one that is 100% original and has no inspiration from previous works. It is impossible, but you could always try. The work of William Shakespeare is well know for copying and incorporating its time cultural classics and stories.
So, if someone can make a 100% original, 100% uninfluenced work, I am fine in giving that person indefinite copyright.
That you have been guiled into believing this is reasonable is a large part of the problem. Let me flip it around:
> What makes you think that you should be able to restrain an idea for your own profit once it has been released?
Both of these are extremist positions. The trick is in finding a middle position that society can agree on.
When it isn't backed by natural scarcity, but through gov't regulation.
People can currently keep control of copyrightable goods forever -- it's called not sharing the good. If they want to publish the good, there are natural consequences. These natural consequences are adjusted by gov't protection through copyright.
I could just as well ask you why you think people should be able to take for free, gov't protection of their intangible works forever without ever giving back.
Copyright is a gov't invented "right." The only reason the right is even offered is that there is supposed to be mutual benefit for the creators and the general public.
Also issue is mostly about access and availability, not cost. Our culture is being locked away from us.