Nothing to celebrate in USA on 'Public Domain Day' 2014

[crich70]

The first day of the year is also the day when published works enter the public domain after their copyrights expire. Unfortunately, Public Domain Day 2014 is not a happy one, according to the book mavens at Duke University.

“Not a single published work” is entering the public domain in 2014, Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain said on its website. “Once again, we will have nothing to celebrate this January 1st....In fact, in the United States, no publication will enter the public domain until 2019.”

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[Ken Maltby]

I wonder what percentage of these books on the extended copyright are "in print"? What percentage are just held as corporate "assets"? How many are not making a cent for anyone and still being prevented from copying and distribution?

Luck;
Ken

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

I wonder what percentage of these books on the extended copyright are "in print"? What percentage are just held as corporate "assets"? How many are not making a cent for anyone and still being prevented from copying and distribution?

Luck;
Ken

Some good questions. Hard to answer though I'm sure because they aren't out for the public to access in the 1st place.

[Barty]

How can this be? No one died 70 years ago?

[Namekuseijin]

Originally Posted by Barty

How can this be? No one died 70 years ago?

They did but their family got their brains into a cryogenic state. So now the heirs can get perpetual copyright out of the bodyless zombie. A fine investment.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Barty

How can this be? No one died 70 years ago?

This is the reason why Barty.

In the U.S., the books “On the Road,” “Atlas Shrugged” and "The Cat in the Hat," the musical “West Side Story” and the song “All Shook Up” would be entering the public domain this year -- but for a 1998 law that increased copyright to 95 years or more for works published after 1923.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by crich70

This is the reason why Barty.

Ahhh, the Sonny Bono Act... god bless his soul

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

What percentage are just held as corporate "assets"? How many are not making a cent for anyone and still being prevented from copying and distribution?

If you ask what percentage of books published since 1923 are still in print, I'll bet it is a tiny fraction of one percent. But the great majority will never be made into human-proofread eBooks.

If the US went to Life + 70 or Life + 50, the first dozen or so books that www.gutenberg.org released might be in-print name brand novels, like The Great Gatsby. But I think they would quickly get into territory where hardly anything is today in print.

If you look at the books, published in the 1930's and 1940's, and recently released at gutenberg.ca (and generally illegal to download in roughly half the world), hardly any seem to be in print.
'

[hardcastle]

Fun fact: If copyright was as short as it was originally designed, we would be getting anything written in 1986!

Mildly hard to defend such a short term, but the idea is still slightly amusing to ponder.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Barty

How can this be? No one died 70 years ago?

They're talking about the United States of America. I've edited the thread title to reflect that.

No previously copyright work will enter the public domain in the US until 1st January 2019, when works first published in the US in 1923 go out of copyright.

[Namekuseijin]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Ahhh, the Sonny Bono Act... god bless his soul

God can't help people in hell. But thanks to him, all hail darknet and pirate bay alike...

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by hardcastle

Fun fact: If copyright was as short as it was originally designed, we would be getting anything written in 1986!

Mildly hard to defend such a short term, but the idea is still slightly amusing to ponder.

I've heard it said that the vast majority of books earn all they are going to make in the first four months and only a handful of authors make anything on books after a year or two. From that point of view, a short term copyright isn't really that hard to defend. What makes it hard to defend is 1) authors tend to view their work as their personal property and 2) the handful of authors who continue to make money on backlist books.

The other issue is that Copyright covers books, music and movies all of which have very different economics. A copyright of 21 years for most books would probably work out (just need some way to handle the Rowlings and Tolkiens of the world), yet movies and music can continue to generate money for the copyright holders for a long time period.

[crich70]

As far as films it also depends on who makes the film. For example the Snafu films made by the US Army were public domain I understand from the time they were made. And in the era of cassette tapes popularity I imagine a lot of people recorded music off the radio for later playback. Hard to prevent that sort of thing with a media that is made to be listened to copyright or no.

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

They're talking about the United States of America. I've edited the thread title to reflect that.

No previously copyright work will enter the public domain in the US until 1st January 2019, when works first published in the US in 1923 go out of copyright.

So all works that are still copyright in the United States of America are copyright because published there and the fact that they have gone out of copyright under Life+x in the country of the author doesn't matter ?

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by Little.Egret

So all works that are still copyright in the United States of America are copyright because published there and the fact that they have gone out of copyright under Life+x in the country of the author doesn't matter ?

Yes.

And, baring a change to US law, on January 1, 2019, many books will go in the other direction. Most books published in 1923 will then be public domain here no matter when the author died, and regardless of copyright law in the author's nation.

We think we are special.

Then, Europe also thinks it is a little special, since it mostly goes by Life + 70, when the most common copyright term worldwide is Life + 50.