Quote:
Originally Posted by QuantumIguana
Strictly speaking, copyright doesn't create the public domain. The public domain is the default: before copyright, everything was public domain. Rather than create the public domain, copyright merely suspends work entering the public domain for a limited time. There is no other reasonable explanation for the limited time of copyright except for the work to enter the public domain. A patent isn't eternal, and isn't meant to be and the same clause allows both patent and copyright. Both allow a limited time, government granted monopoly, and at the end of the period, the monopoly ends.
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Correct. I read eschwartz's question to mean "How does copyright law suggest that the works should eventually go into the public domain?" (As opposed to, say, moving from copyright to some other form of economic protection, or just going from one limited copyright period to another, eternally.)
My answer is that it's implied in the "limited time."
ETA: Although, copyright law probably IS responsible for creating 'public domain' as a retronym. There was probably no need to have a term for it until then!
ApK