Public Domain Day 2010 (original) (raw)

Public Domain Day 2010

December 31, 2009 9:32 PM Subscribe

Is steamboat willie out of copyright in Europe and other nations, or does it work based on the country the copyright originated in? Or most likely, is it a giant mess due to competing treaties?
posted by scodger at 9:57 PM on December 31, 2009

One of my favorite holidays! Does anyone happen to know where I could check to find out what films are becoming public domain today? In addition to that, I'd be interested to know if there's a site that carries a comprehensive list of public domain films.
posted by One Second Before Awakening at 11:40 PM on December 31, 2009

The characters and stories are stored in my memory. I can even relate my memories to others. I'm a walking copyright infringement.
posted by telstar at 1:32 AM on January 1, 2010 [6 favorites]

Oooh! Mucha's out of copyright! I think, in the United Kingdom.
posted by alasdair at 4:22 AM on January 1, 2010

the first ever copyright laws were designed to stop the publishers from cutting each other's throats, with the aim of ensuring the widest possible distribution of works of art to the public. Frith and Marshal, Music and Copyright. (Google Books)
posted by yoHighness at 9:29 AM on January 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

The death of the creator thing made a lot more sense when the creator wasn't an immortal corporation.
posted by smackfu at 9:45 AM on January 1, 2010 [2 favorites]

The work was always the property of the people. We just allowed the creator exclusive use of it for a while. Like a lease on public land.
posted by Megafly at 9:47 AM on January 1, 2010

Ironically, the copyright on the comments on this page may never expire.
posted by blue_beetle at 10:27 AM on January 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

Also, when a work goes into the PD, it becomes accessible. Look at the 1.8 million public domain books on Internet Archive available in full right now at no cost. Compare with the millions of copyright but out-of-print "orphan books."
posted by stbalbach at 10:53 AM on January 1, 2010

cmgonzalez: If you keep your creations all to yourself and secret then you dont have to let anyone copy it ever.
posted by Iax at 4:03 PM on January 1, 2010

It's not that work becomes "property of the people" after the expiration of copyright. I think it makes more sense, from a natural rights point-of-view, to think of copyright as an artificial restriction on the ability of artists, publishers, and production companies to produce and distribute certain works (that is, works that are under copyright). Once copyright expires, the system reverts to its "natural" state as expected under a regime that supports free expression: anyone can create, publish, produce, or sell anything they damn well please. So copyright policy needs to balance the right to free expression of some actors with the societal value of compensating the creativity of other actors. The rights of the creators are not the only rights involved in the calculation.
posted by mr_roboto at 4:15 PM on January 1, 2010

If more films/books/websites took royalties as seriously as Sita Sings the Blues - with the chart and royalty checks and penny amounts - it would cause a grassroots revolt against the whole system. Creative Commons is the way out of the whole mess, it will just take generations.
posted by stbalbach at 7:14 AM on January 2, 2010

The problem with life + 70 is that in this modern world, a lot of the originals will be gone by the time the work enters public domain. How many of the original floppies/CDs/DVDs will still work when the work they contain enters public domain?
posted by ymgve at 10:58 AM on January 2, 2010

Every day is Public Domain Day as far as I'm concerned.
posted by coolguymichael at 10:59 AM on January 2, 2010

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