Quote:
Originally Posted by speakingtohe
And if most of the successful writers of the last century managed under the
restrictions without the world falling into cultural poverty, why can't those of today? It's not like everybody is using Shakespeare or Dickens etc. as a springboard even though they can.
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Perhaps you are unaware of how much copyright changed in the last century?
In the US up until 1977 authors had a maximum fixed term of 56 years from publication to benefit from their work before copyright expired. In the UK until 1911, they had the maximum of 42 years from publication or life+7 years (whichever was longer).
The complaint about current copyright law is that the copyright term has been greatly extended, but that this has not been of any benefit to the actual creators of the works, but has been of considerable harm to everyone else except some copyright holders.