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People bring up copyright, and its length, here but one critical point is that even if the movies would transition to public domain, that still would not releas
by zokier 7y ago
People bring up copyright, and its length, here but one critical point is that even if the movies would transition to public domain, that still would not release them from Disneys vault. Instead it would likely mean that Disney would exhort even tighter control over the copies. And make no mistake thinking that Disney would be completely clawless without copyright.
- saagarjha 7y agoOnce a work enters public domain, it would be legal to distribute copies of the media, no?
- mthoms 7y agoThanks to lobbying by Disney, this has long been a continuously moving target[0]. Thankfully, efforts to extend the period yet again have failed[1], so the original incarnation of Mickey will enter the public domain in 2023. But the damage has been done. After a certain period, older works just naturally loose their cultural relevance. Disney's main characters being the obvious exception but there's been (and will be) tons of collateral damage. IMHO, it's disgusting what they've done. [0] https://alj.artrepreneur.com/mickey-mouse-keeps-changing-copyright-law/ https://alj.artrepreneur.com/mickey-mouse-keeps-changing-cop... [1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/01/a-whole-years-worth-of-works-just-fell-into-the-public-domain/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/01/a-whole-years-wo...
- est31 7y agoIndeed. Even if they lended you their copies, they'd add clauses to the lease contract banning you from creating copies. Similar to how China lends its pandas to zoos all over the world but any babies must be sent to China. Another example is museums which ban you from taking pictures of paintings that are already out of copyright. There is a story about someone who has taken pictures anyways and uploaded them to Wikipedia. The museum sued Wikipedia and the court ruled in favour of the museum: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reiss_Engelhorn_Museum#Wikimedia_lawsuit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reiss_Engelhorn_Museum#Wikimed...
- twic 7y agoIf the movies were out of copyright, people would be able to freely use existing copies - DVDs, physical film not in Disney's physical control, etc.
- gamblor956 7y agoPeople can already free use their existing copies under the first sale doctrine which has been around for several decades. Copyright simply means you can't copy your DVDs of Disney films onto other DVDs and sell them for a profit without getting permission (aka a license) from Disney first.
- scintill76 7y agoIANAL, but I don't think profiting would be the illegal part here. I think any distribution of an unauthorized copy violates copyright.
- beerandt 7y ago1)no such thing as an unauthorized copy once copyright expires. 2) even before copyright expires, first sale doctrine applies to any re-sold copy (the disc bought), but not copies of that copy. 3) this doesn't solve the problem of have having access to the high quality masters.
- rasz 7y agoNot in my countery, we have a 'close friends and family' clause in our Copyright bill.