4 ms·

Why cant I watch old TV shows? 3's company? Facts of Life? The Peoples Court? It doesnt make much sense to me.

• pasquinelli 9y ago
  offtopic, but i get a tv station that broadcasts, afaict, nothing but Roseanne, Night Court, and Empty Nest. Roseanne was just as good as I remember... until it wasn't.
• Mindwipe 9y ago
  Because there aren't enough people like you who would to pay for it to cover the costs of even a lawyer reviewing the contracts to see who owns the rights (and the answer will be not a single party, actors/music/artwork etc rights involved in all will be incredibly complex), never mind actually pay anyone involved. There are lots of things I would like someone to make at a reasonable price too (roll on my line of all existing Transformers with chrome finishes, car paint, clear windows and chrome tire rims!). But I have to accept that there's not enough of me that the costs of that sort of thing come down to $10, and buy a limited subset of more expensive items instead.
  • lostcolony 9y ago
    If that's the case that stuff needs to enter the public domain. We need better legislation around orphaned works; those whose ownership is too complex to resolve should be treated the same as those whose ownership is completely lost. In both cases, ownership can't be reasonably determined.
    • mattm 9y ago
      Yes, this is the real issue. If copyright was reasonable - say 40-50 years - then a lot of this stuff would naturally enter the public domain and then could be shown on any streaming service. Instead we have the current copyright system because a minuscule amount of old content is still profitable and large companies lobby to protect it.