The re-opening of America's public domain is good news for artists, less so for the corporations that exploit them

[doctorow]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/01/04/new-raw-material.html

…

[Wanderfound]

April Daniels (1aprildaniels)

[knoxblox]

Just to mention, @doctorow, I saw your “thanks to…” in the Ralph Breaks the Internet credits. Some of us read the credits…

[Boundegar]

The most prolific remix in all of history:

Variations on a Theme of Paganini (disambiguation)

And my personal favorite:

Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

EDIT: O holy hell, the list is even longer.

[Ceran_Swicegood]

The 1976 copyright act allowed a term of life plus 50 years, or 75 years for work for hire. So very little from the 1980s would now be public domain.

[Wanderfound]

You’re right.

So amend the above argument to “if we still had the IP laws as they were pre-1978 (when the 1976 Act took effect)”.

[Ceran_Swicegood]

And even then only if someone forgot to renew.

[dnd01]

I always thought Spider Robinson’s story Melancholy Elephants
http://www.spiderrobinson.com/melancholyelephants.html
made an interesting point about copyright length.