American copyrighted material to fall into the public domain for the first time in 21 years

[Death Egg]

https://m.slashdot.org/story/349874

 

Pretty interesting, I would have thought Disney and the likes would've kept pushing the deadline off for eternity. Maybe Congress is just too busy putting up with all the other bullshit happening right now they just forgot to extend it another twenty years?

[Grazza]

The 21-year business was basically just the US bringing its copyright provisions more into line with most of the rest of the world (and in particular the EU) - pretty much essential with everything becoming globalized. No basis for any further extension of copyright terms.

[insertwackynamehere]

I still don’t get Disney’s issue with Steamboat Willie being released into public domain. Are they really making money off of it any more? Don’t they continue to own the trademark of Mickey Mouse regardless of whether or not their old cartoons are freely distributable?

[geo]

47 minutes ago, insertwackynamehere said:

I still don’t get Disney’s issue with Steamboat Willie being released into public domain. Are they really making money off of it any more? Don’t they continue to own the trademark of Mickey Mouse regardless of whether or not their old cartoons are freely distributable?

It's still a part of their initial history. Your baby pictures mean a lot more than pictures when you're five years old.

 

In all seriousness, if you open up that crack into a doorway it will open up the flood gates to a conga line of losses.

 

Another issue is if someone uses your creation that 99.99% of people know you made, they might not realize that someone else is using it and get offended at that usage and then attack you for your creation thinking you had something to do with it.

Edited December 21, 2018 by geo