Quote:
Originally Posted by HansTWN
Disney is a perfect example. What jobs would be created if their early works were available for free?
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Potential commercial uses currently hampered by copyright monopoly:
1) Sequel movies--what happens five years after Whatzername marries The Handsome Prince? Are they still happy? What are their kids like? These sequels would be free to imitate the art style of the original, use the same character names & descriptions, and build on the history of the first movie.
2) Condensed versions of movies, a.k.a. the Reduced Shakespeare Company goes digital: Snow White in 3 minutes, Sleeping Beauty in 45 seconds, and so on.
3) Sociological studies: removed from fear of copyright lawsuits, students & educators could copy and discuss movies scene-by-scene, sometimes frame-by-frame, to understand the societal norms when the movies were made, and how folklore was edited when it hit the big screen. While these studies currently exist, they are limited in the amount of the original they dare copy, which limits their ability to coherently explain and discuss them. In one case, a student was told she couldn't quote a 15-word TV Guide entry for a movie because of the risk of copyright infringement.
4) Comedy: take the whole movie & re-script the whole thing. "What's Up Tiger Lily" for Disney.
5) Reenactment: plays can pull from the Disney scripts--or from folklore that Disney copied directly--without fear of infringement lawsuits.
6) Remix: DVDs of dozens of favorite Disney cartoons or movie scenes, selectively assembled to personal taste. Some digital entrepreneur would love to make a "build your own cartoon DVD" website with over 200 clips available, which you pick-and-choose to make your own hour-long collection.
7) Crossover: What if Dumbo's circus were really Haly's circus, where Batman found (the first) Robin? Pre-1955 isn't limited to Disney, after all. The story of Robin and his flying elephant would make an excellent cartoon & comic book--if copyright allowed it.
8) Merchandise: Dresses to match Disney princesses. (Of real clothing quality, not the costume junk.) Robin Hood outfits from the movie. Dolls and toys--I know of a woman who lost her house to legal fees for selling a set of crocheted Winnie-the-Pooh stuffed toys. Disney doesn't bother with merchandise that can't be produced by the truckload; the economic niche for unique or at least specialized replications is wide open.
9) Educational materials (movies & books) using characters children love and trust.
10) Music: Nevermind Disney's limited best-of collections; people would be free to repackage the entire set of early Disney songs, or make limited themed collections. These could be sold as albums or single songs, or remixed into fan videos using other than the original footage.
... and that's off the top of my head. I know there are dozens, maybe hundreds, more commercial uses for any popular movie; add to that all the books, cartoons, tv shows, music, radio teleplays, and comic books from the first half of the 20th century, and we'd have a gold mine of material for our entertainment, educational and pop-culture-studies industries.