5 ms·

Welcoming 1927 to the Public Domain

107 points by edward 4y ago

robin_reala 4y ago
We launched ten new ebooks that have just come into the US public domain on Standard Ebooks this morning: Ashenden - W. Somerset Maugham - https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/w-somerset-maugham/ashenden https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/w-somerset-maugham/ashende... Death Comes for the Archbishop - Willa Cather - https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/willa-cather/death-comes-for-the-archbishop https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/willa-cather/death-comes-f... Tombstone - Walter Noble Burns - https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/walter-noble-burns/tombstone https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/walter-noble-burns/tombsto... To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf - https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/virginia-woolf/to-the-lighthouse https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/virginia-woolf/to-the-ligh... The Bridge of San Luis Rey - Thornton Wilder - https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/thornton-wilder/the-bridge-of-san-luis-rey https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/thornton-wilder/the-bridge... Elmer Gantry - Sinclair Lewis - https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/sinclair-lewis/elmer-gantry https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/sinclair-lewis/elmer-gantr... The Story of Ivy - Marie Belloc Lowndes - https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/marie-belloc-lowndes/the-story-of-ivy https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/marie-belloc-lowndes/the-s... Unnatural Death - Dorothy L. Sayers - https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/dorothy-l-sayers/unnatural-death https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/dorothy-l-sayers/unnatural... Sir Percy Hits Back - Baroness Orczy - https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/baroness-orczy/sir-percy-hits-back https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/baroness-orczy/sir-percy-h... The Big Four - Agatha Christie - https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/agatha-christie/the-big-four https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/agatha-christie/the-big-fo... Ernest Hemingway’s Men Without Women collection of shorts also hit PD, so the additional stories were rolled into our existing Short Fiction compilation: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/ernest-hemingway/short-fiction https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/ernest-hemingway/short-fic...
- asicsp 4y ago
  >Sir Percy Hits Back - Baroness Orczy That reminds me of "The Scarlet Pimpernel" - one of my favorite novels from school curriculum. Read it a few times after too. Didn't much like the sequels though.
  - robin_reala 4y ago
    It’s specifically number 11 in the Scarlet Pimpernel series. https://standardebooks.org/collections/scarlet-pimpernel https://standardebooks.org/collections/scarlet-pimpernel
matheusmoreira 4y ago
I wonder when all the works I actually grew up with and formed part of my culture will be part of the public domain. Probably only after I'm long dead.
- elefanten 4y ago
  "Working as intended"
- joshspankit 4y ago
  Without reform It’s possible your grandchildren (or hypothetic grandchildren) won’t even be able to use those works to create their own.
  - matheusmoreira 4y ago
    It's interesting how we've been robbed of the same public domain rights that contributed massively to the success of corporations like Disney.
    - joshspankit 4y ago
      Indeed. At least 50 “Disney properties” and counting. Snow White, Cinderella, Robin Hood, Tangled, Princess and the Frog, Pinocchio, the music of Fantasia, Aladdin....
    - chrismcb 4y ago
      But... You haven't been. All of those stories are still in the public domain.
      - matheusmoreira 4y ago
        Oh but we were. Disney benefited from other people's public domain works but we can't we benefit from Disney's own works because they lobbied to extend copyright duration and deny us our public domain rights.
sien 4y ago
The wikipedia page has this for more than the US : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_in_public_domain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_in_public_domain The works of Jim Morrison and Igor Stravinsky are now public domain in Canada.
- robin_reala 4y ago
  Most places have settled on death + 70 years now, including the US. But in the US that doesn’t applied to works created before 1978, where it’s typically publication + 95 years. It actually ends up being generally similar, but works created nearer the end of life of the creator tend to come into the PD earlier globally and later in the US. And the other way around for works created near the start of life. For example, some Agatha Christies are in the PD in the US now, but won’t be in the PD in other countries until 2046. But Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four has been in the public domain since 2020 in most countries, but won’t arrive in the US until 2044.
scotty79 4y ago
Time for stuff to go into public domain should be like 3 years.
- anthropodie 4y ago
  It looks stupid to have these many years but for a moment sit on the other side of the table. You created something amazing by giving significant part of your life, would you prefer to get paid only for 3 years? I think 30 years is good time to release works into public domain. In India, it's 60 years.
  - scotty79 4y ago
    If it's really amazing you can sell it for huge money to someone who will milk it dry in 3 years. That's what happens in reality anyways.
  - Matumio 4y ago
    Nobody about to create their big work says: "Wait - if this going to be my lucky great success, then my grand-children won't be able profit from it! I'm not starting." And when business people talk about long-term investments they don't mean 90 years. The goal of having a copyright law is not to create fairness. It's to ensure there is enough of an incentive that works get created, while still maximizing the public use of it. I'm personally for 10 or 15 years, but even 30 years would be okay compared to the absurdity we got today. This is so clearly only about protecting the profits of those who have enough money and power to influence laws.
- wahnfrieden 4y ago
  Or 0
- chrismcb 4y ago
  3 years is silly. The books that most movies have been made in are older that 3 years. Even books have a life long than that. 25 years is more reasonable. I'm basing that on the fact (at least at one time) almost all books on Amazon were 25 years or newer(or older than 95)
amelius 4y ago
Mickey Mouse will be in the public domain in 2024. > Mickey's Copyright Adventure: Early Disney Creation Will Soon Be Public Property. The version of the iconic character from “Steamboat Willie” will enter the public domain in 2024. But those trying to take advantage could end up in a legal mousetrap. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/business/mickey-mouse-disney-public-domain.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/business/mickey-mouse-dis...
- hoseja 4y ago
  I think you mean, "copyright will be extended to 100 years shortly".
  - yreg 4y ago
    I've read here on hn, that Disney no longer wants to extend copyrights, because they would rather remake other's works that are in public domain.
- 0x008 4y ago
  Well I think that will not mean anybody can use the character or create their own spin-offs I presume…? There surely is some kind of law that will allow Disney to sue anybody on the grounds they the character defines their brand identity or something similar..
  - enkid 4y ago
    That's what trademark is for.
    - 0x008 4y ago
      So then what is the significance of Mickey Mouse copyright expiring..?
      - enkid 4y ago
        My understanding is you can sell the videos of the original cartoons, but you can't use Mickey's likeness to sell it.
Thorentis 4y ago
We should be welcoming 2003 into the public domain. Most popular works from that year have made millions of dollars in profit, and are commonly cited as part of pop culture. There is no reason for us to continue placing these obscene restrictions on their distribution or derivative use.
- echelon 4y ago
  But then Star Wars and Marvel would be public domain. Oh, the tragedy! I think AI/ML will be a forcing function. More new media will be created every year than all of recorded human history. They copyright office will cave under this pressure. They'll either say none of it can by copyrighted, which will be complicated -- who wants to prove which parts were AI-assisted? More sensibly, they'll just contract the copyright TTL. That's easy to calculate. If this happens, it will have very interesting implications for Disney, Universal Music Group, et al.
  - alams 4y ago
    Or they will come up with their own AI/employ private companies that can create/run such AI to find the copyright violating content and copyright strikes or claims will be increased multifold?
    - bongobingo1 4y ago
      Reminds me of Earworm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JlxuQ7tPgQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JlxuQ7tPgQ
- matheusmoreira 4y ago
  Absolutely agree. 2003 was 20 years ago. More than enough time for creators to make their profits several times over.
  - deleted 4y ago
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- 4y ago
deleted 4y ago
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cyco130 4y ago
Found a cure for cancer? Protected for 15 to 20 years. Wrote two lines of trivial lyrics to an 18th century children's song? Protected for life + 75 years.
merricksb 4y ago
Several major recent discussions via dang here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34210013 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34210013

107 points by edward 4y ago

We launched ten new ebooks that have just come into the US public domain on Standard Ebooks this morning: Ashenden - W. Somerset Maugham - https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/w-somerset-maugham/ashenden https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/w-somerset-maugham/ashende... Death Comes for the Archbishop - Willa Cather - https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/willa-cather/death-comes-for-the-archbishop https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/willa-cather/death-comes-f... Tombstone - Walter Noble Burns - https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/walter-noble-burns/tombstone https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/walter-noble-burns/tombsto... To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf - https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/virginia-woolf/to-the-lighthouse https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/virginia-woolf/to-the-ligh... The Bridge of San Luis Rey - Thornton Wilder - https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/thornton-wilder/the-bridge-of-san-luis-rey https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/thornton-wilder/the-bridge... Elmer Gantry - Sinclair Lewis - https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/sinclair-lewis/elmer-gantry https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/sinclair-lewis/elmer-gantr... The Story of Ivy - Marie Belloc Lowndes - https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/marie-belloc-lowndes/the-story-of-ivy https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/marie-belloc-lowndes/the-s... Unnatural Death - Dorothy L. Sayers - https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/dorothy-l-sayers/unnatural-death https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/dorothy-l-sayers/unnatural... Sir Percy Hits Back - Baroness Orczy - https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/baroness-orczy/sir-percy-hits-back https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/baroness-orczy/sir-percy-h... The Big Four - Agatha Christie - https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/agatha-christie/the-big-four https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/agatha-christie/the-big-fo... Ernest Hemingway’s Men Without Women collection of shorts also hit PD, so the additional stories were rolled into our existing Short Fiction compilation: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/ernest-hemingway/short-fiction https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/ernest-hemingway/short-fic...

asicsp 4y ago
>Sir Percy Hits Back - Baroness Orczy That reminds me of "The Scarlet Pimpernel" - one of my favorite novels from school curriculum. Read it a few times after too. Didn't much like the sequels though.
- robin_reala 4y ago
  It’s specifically number 11 in the Scarlet Pimpernel series. https://standardebooks.org/collections/scarlet-pimpernel https://standardebooks.org/collections/scarlet-pimpernel

matheusmoreira 4y ago

I wonder when all the works I actually grew up with and formed part of my culture will be part of the public domain. Probably only after I'm long dead.

elefanten 4y ago
"Working as intended"
joshspankit 4y ago
Without reform It’s possible your grandchildren (or hypothetic grandchildren) won’t even be able to use those works to create their own.
- matheusmoreira 4y ago
  It's interesting how we've been robbed of the same public domain rights that contributed massively to the success of corporations like Disney.
  - joshspankit 4y ago
    Indeed. At least 50 “Disney properties” and counting. Snow White, Cinderella, Robin Hood, Tangled, Princess and the Frog, Pinocchio, the music of Fantasia, Aladdin....
  - chrismcb 4y ago
    But... You haven't been. All of those stories are still in the public domain.
    - matheusmoreira 4y ago
      Oh but we were. Disney benefited from other people's public domain works but we can't we benefit from Disney's own works because they lobbied to extend copyright duration and deny us our public domain rights.

sien 4y ago

The wikipedia page has this for more than the US : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_in_public_domain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_in_public_domain The works of Jim Morrison and Igor Stravinsky are now public domain in Canada.

robin_reala 4y ago
Most places have settled on death + 70 years now, including the US. But in the US that doesn’t applied to works created before 1978, where it’s typically publication + 95 years. It actually ends up being generally similar, but works created nearer the end of life of the creator tend to come into the PD earlier globally and later in the US. And the other way around for works created near the start of life. For example, some Agatha Christies are in the PD in the US now, but won’t be in the PD in other countries until 2046. But Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four has been in the public domain since 2020 in most countries, but won’t arrive in the US until 2044.

scotty79 4y ago

Time for stuff to go into public domain should be like 3 years.

anthropodie 4y ago
It looks stupid to have these many years but for a moment sit on the other side of the table. You created something amazing by giving significant part of your life, would you prefer to get paid only for 3 years? I think 30 years is good time to release works into public domain. In India, it's 60 years.
- scotty79 4y ago
  If it's really amazing you can sell it for huge money to someone who will milk it dry in 3 years. That's what happens in reality anyways.
- Matumio 4y ago
  Nobody about to create their big work says: "Wait - if this going to be my lucky great success, then my grand-children won't be able profit from it! I'm not starting." And when business people talk about long-term investments they don't mean 90 years. The goal of having a copyright law is not to create fairness. It's to ensure there is enough of an incentive that works get created, while still maximizing the public use of it. I'm personally for 10 or 15 years, but even 30 years would be okay compared to the absurdity we got today. This is so clearly only about protecting the profits of those who have enough money and power to influence laws.
wahnfrieden 4y ago
Or 0
chrismcb 4y ago
3 years is silly. The books that most movies have been made in are older that 3 years. Even books have a life long than that. 25 years is more reasonable. I'm basing that on the fact (at least at one time) almost all books on Amazon were 25 years or newer(or older than 95)

amelius 4y ago

Mickey Mouse will be in the public domain in 2024. > Mickey's Copyright Adventure: Early Disney Creation Will Soon Be Public Property. The version of the iconic character from “Steamboat Willie” will enter the public domain in 2024. But those trying to take advantage could end up in a legal mousetrap. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/business/mickey-mouse-disney-public-domain.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/business/mickey-mouse-dis...

hoseja 4y ago
I think you mean, "copyright will be extended to 100 years shortly".
- yreg 4y ago
  I've read here on hn, that Disney no longer wants to extend copyrights, because they would rather remake other's works that are in public domain.
0x008 4y ago
Well I think that will not mean anybody can use the character or create their own spin-offs I presume…? There surely is some kind of law that will allow Disney to sue anybody on the grounds they the character defines their brand identity or something similar..
- enkid 4y ago
  That's what trademark is for.
  - 0x008 4y ago
    So then what is the significance of Mickey Mouse copyright expiring..?
    - enkid 4y ago
      My understanding is you can sell the videos of the original cartoons, but you can't use Mickey's likeness to sell it.

Thorentis 4y ago

We should be welcoming 2003 into the public domain. Most popular works from that year have made millions of dollars in profit, and are commonly cited as part of pop culture. There is no reason for us to continue placing these obscene restrictions on their distribution or derivative use.

echelon 4y ago
But then Star Wars and Marvel would be public domain. Oh, the tragedy! I think AI/ML will be a forcing function. More new media will be created every year than all of recorded human history. They copyright office will cave under this pressure. They'll either say none of it can by copyrighted, which will be complicated -- who wants to prove which parts were AI-assisted? More sensibly, they'll just contract the copyright TTL. That's easy to calculate. If this happens, it will have very interesting implications for Disney, Universal Music Group, et al.
- alams 4y ago
  Or they will come up with their own AI/employ private companies that can create/run such AI to find the copyright violating content and copyright strikes or claims will be increased multifold?
  - bongobingo1 4y ago
    Reminds me of Earworm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JlxuQ7tPgQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JlxuQ7tPgQ
matheusmoreira 4y ago
Absolutely agree. 2003 was 20 years ago. More than enough time for creators to make their profits several times over.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

cyco130 4y ago

Found a cure for cancer? Protected for 15 to 20 years. Wrote two lines of trivial lyrics to an 18th century children's song? Protected for life + 75 years.

merricksb 4y ago

Several major recent discussions via dang here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34210013 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34210013