4 ms·

I know about the current sad state of the length of copyright, but seeing it on display really drives it home. So few films after 1960. Same issue with books on

I know about the current sad state of the length of copyright, but seeing it on display really drives it home. So few films after 1960. Same issue with books on Gutenberg.

mycall 7y ago
I'm sure there are many unreclaimed works made by dead people who nobody has claimed.
- WCityMike 7y ago
  I've been trying to get copyrights reverted for my grandmother's works. It's 95 years after the work was created. She passed in the 1990s and yet most still will, without intervention, be copyrighted for decades to come. (US)
  - pimmen 7y ago
    Have you made any progress?
  - slim 7y ago
    why won't you publish her work and put the burden of taking legal action on them (whoever they are) ? I bet they won't bother (IANAL)
pimmen 7y ago
Sometimes, it just makes no sense at all. R.E. Howard had no children, no wife, no parents, no siblings and no busines when he took his own life 83 years ago. I think the original Conan books are completely public domain but I know that ”Conan” is under a dicey trademark somehow that people don’t dare mess around with. So, I believe if you write a story about a barbarian from Cimmeria who rescues damsels from snake people you can make all the money you want selling it and keep it yourself. As long as you don’t call it ”Conan”.
zzo38computer 7y ago
Some people will deliberately make their stuff public domain rather than being copyright. My opinion is copyright is bad, so I also will make all of them public domain, too.
- ravenstine 7y ago
  I don't think copyright itself is bad, but the way in which Disney has gotten the government to enforce it is absurd. If I ever release a creative work, I'd make sure to do it in a way where the work is free to share but I would still own the right to produce that work until I am dead. I think that's perfectly reasonable, but copyright in the US today is effectively indefinite and intentionally difficult to make sense of. All you have to do is shove a bunch of other licensed copyrighted material into your work so that only your company can resell that work after the main copyright has expired.

I know about the current sad state of the length of copyright, but seeing it on display really drives it home. So few films after 1960. Same issue with books on Gutenberg.

mycall 7y ago

I'm sure there are many unreclaimed works made by dead people who nobody has claimed.

WCityMike 7y ago
I've been trying to get copyrights reverted for my grandmother's works. It's 95 years after the work was created. She passed in the 1990s and yet most still will, without intervention, be copyrighted for decades to come. (US)
- pimmen 7y ago
  Have you made any progress?
- slim 7y ago
  why won't you publish her work and put the burden of taking legal action on them (whoever they are) ? I bet they won't bother (IANAL)

pimmen 7y ago

Sometimes, it just makes no sense at all. R.E. Howard had no children, no wife, no parents, no siblings and no busines when he took his own life 83 years ago. I think the original Conan books are completely public domain but I know that ”Conan” is under a dicey trademark somehow that people don’t dare mess around with. So, I believe if you write a story about a barbarian from Cimmeria who rescues damsels from snake people you can make all the money you want selling it and keep it yourself. As long as you don’t call it ”Conan”.

zzo38computer 7y ago

Some people will deliberately make their stuff public domain rather than being copyright. My opinion is copyright is bad, so I also will make all of them public domain, too.

ravenstine 7y ago
I don't think copyright itself is bad, but the way in which Disney has gotten the government to enforce it is absurd. If I ever release a creative work, I'd make sure to do it in a way where the work is free to share but I would still own the right to produce that work until I am dead. I think that's perfectly reasonable, but copyright in the US today is effectively indefinite and intentionally difficult to make sense of. All you have to do is shove a bunch of other licensed copyrighted material into your work so that only your company can resell that work after the main copyright has expired.