Quote:
Originally Posted by Ninjalawyer
I disagree that books in the public domain are simply turned into "porno novel" by new authors (really?), but I am also concerned about the availability of new books. And that's another benefit of shorter copyrights.
Copyright has a tendency to make books disappear that might otherwise be available if they were available in the public domain. The Atlantic has a good article on the issue here, but here's a succinct summary:
There's a tendency to think that the public domain is just a trough where pigs can rub their disgusting snouts all over other authors' works, and I disagree with that. But leaving that aside, too long copyright still has negative consequences for book availability. |
I actually used that example because it's a favored example, we must protect Micky, because otherwise we end up with porno films with Micky Mouse. Obviously, given all the Harry Potter Fan fic out there, many people would love to play in their favorite author's universe. And yes, there is all sorts of derivative works that are available. I just don't think that's the main value of public domain.
Music is a different matter. A lot of singers and musicians use riffs, ideas, whatever from PD works. Johnny Cash said that "Don't take you gun to town" was inspired in part by a PD work.
Movies borrows more from PD than any other medium, and has the problem of lost works more than any other medium. A lot of old movies are now lost, never to be recovered because of copyright laws and the fragile medium that movies were stored on.