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Originally Posted by pwalker8
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.
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I'm not going to lie to you and say that novels like Wesley Crusher: Teenage Fuck Machine don't exist, but I disagree that writers use "literary riffs" less often than artists in other mediums. I've read a number of books that use the basic structure of the Wizard of Oz, and have enjoyed a number of works (movies, videogames and books) that were set in Wonderland. There's a great value in new artists being able to set works in classic story settings.
My above argument feels a bit pointless since: (i) we both agree on the basic point (copyright is too long); and (ii) copyright in the U.S. probably won't get any shorter, and could easily get longer.
I'm Canadian, and I find the fact that nothing will enter the U.S. public domain for years to be depressing, partly because I like a lot of U.S. artists and think they could do great things with old works.