Today is Public Domain Day

[Nate the great]

I can't write about this topic without getting really angry, so I'm just going to post a few links. I'm sure there are plenty more stories, but that's enough to raise your blood pressure. Enjoy.

http://www.thepublicdomain.org/2009/...ne-by-lawyers/

http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday

http://techdirt.com/articles/20091231/1105257562.shtml

[Cinnabar]

I also get angry when I think about the state of copyright in the U.S.A. Not only that, I think these restrictive laws are counterproductive, as people don't obey laws they think are unfair. It's not as if pirating was difficult these days, after all.

And I hate to see the writers/creators get ripped off.

[ShadowAuthor]

While I don't condone piracy, but it is the money-grubbing actions like this that really tick me off and make me not feel one iota of compassion for publishers. In piracy, the only people that get hurt are the writers and legit consumers. The publishers still rake in monster profits from law abiding citizens and those who pirate will still get their product for free.

[brecklundin]

lalalalalalalalalalalaiamnotlisteningtonatebecause iwantanicenewyearlalalalalalalalalalalala



PS: that bytes!! Time to buy a scanner again and hit the usual sources for used books I suppose.

[HarryT]

Welcome to the Canadian public domain, Raymond Chandler. Anyone feel like scanning some of his works and uploading them?

[Dave Berk]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Welcome to the Canadian public domain, Raymond Chandler. Anyone feel like scanning some of his works and uploading them?

What's the legal standing on getting them off the darknet, editing them & then uploading?

[Blue Tyson]

Someone beat you to it http://raymondchandler.bravehost.com/

A high quality version would be good, definitely, for someone with the interest.

As far as grabbing goes - they've been online - or most of them at somewhere in Europe for several years - might be Ukraine I think - greylib?

So which version would be better, don't know.

[Sweetpea]

It's time for some global civil disobedience, I'd say...

[LDBoblo]

Sounds a lot like Valentine's day to me...
Edit: oh wait, PubLic Domain Day...sorry!

[Kali Yuga]

With all due, respect... meh.

1) IMO, automatic assignment of copyright is a huge boon for artists and writers. For example, a photographer might easily knock out 100 images in a single day. Should s/he fill out a form for each day's work? Or each image, perhaps? Or, a screenwriter can circulate a draft and numerous revisions, without needing to manage a ton of paperwork in order to protect that draft. Automatic assignment of copyright without the need to fill out paperwork is a tremendous benefit for individual artists.

2) While copyright may be too long, the idea that these terms are "destroying culture" is hyperbolic and absurd. E.g. hip-hop is a form of music that heavily relies upon sampling other recordings, and has obviously flourished despite the requirement both to get permission and pay royalties on those samples.

Obviously there are issues like the status of orphan works that require further refinement via legislation. But we are also living in an age where the average life span is far longer than it was in the 1700's and 1800's, where 28 years was a common copyright term; ergo, it makes sense to have terms that are, at a minimum, longer than that....

[Blue Tyson]

We certainly don't live five times longer though. Maybe double. So 56 would work. Or call it 50 coz we are decimal now.

[HorridRedDog]

I think that Walt Disney would have been against this Sh__ stuff.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyrig..._Extension_Act

"In addition to Disney (whose extensive lobbying efforts inspired the nickname "The Mickey Mouse Protection Act"), ...."

[Elfwreck]

I want to cry. What Could Have Been Entering the Public Domain on January 1, 2010?

...would be entering the public domain if we had the pre-1978 copyright laws

• Agatha Christie’s A Pocket Full of Rye
• Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451
• C.S. Lewis’s The Silver Chair (the fourth book in The Chronicles of Narnia)
• J.D. Salinger’s Nine Stories
• Leon Uris’s Battle Cry
• James Baldwin’s Go Tell It On the Mountain
• Ian Fleming's Casino Royal
• Robert Heinlein’s Starman Jones
• Isaac Asimov’s Second Foundation
• Arthur Clarke’s Childhood's End
• First issue of Playboy, with Marylin Monroe on the cover
• Watson and Crick Nature article on the double helix of DNA

Movies:

• Abbott and Costello Go To Mars
• From Here to Eternity
• Hondo (starring John Wayne)
• Kiss Me Kate (starring Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keel)
• Julius Caesar (starring Marlon Brando)
• Walt Disney's Peter Pan
• H.G. Well's The War of the Worlds
• the cult classic Glen or Glenda

Plus, of course, ~85% of the content created in 1981.

Lists like this are problematic... they focus on big-name, well-known works, and many people react by saying, "well, why *shouldn't* the writer/publisher still be making money from it? It's still in use!" We don't have lists of the thousands of lesser-known, not-in-print books and movies that probably wouldn't have been renewed after 28 years, and certainly would've been available after 56.

[Blue Tyson]

At least there was some poetic justice. They decided to commercialise the internet. We got bittorrent. :-)

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

Someone beat you to it http://raymondchandler.bravehost.com/

A high quality version would be good, definitely, for someone with the interest.

As far as grabbing goes - they've been online - or most of them at somewhere in Europe for several years - might be Ukraine I think - greylib?

So which version would be better, don't know.

Now if some Canadian server would do all the Lester Dent Doc Savages. I've heard the old blackmask versions were well edited.....