Copyright terms are so fucking stupid. Imagine getting into trouble for using Popeye. Make it the same as a patent duration and be done with it.
You can really see how invested the copyright owners were to get such long durations.
“I’m not saying that’s how it should be. I’m saying that’s how it is.”
- Tom Scott, 2020
YouTube’s copyright system isn’t broken. The world’s is. (43 minutes long, but worth a watch)
Fuck Disney and congress for extending copyright protections to near infinity.
I feel like it should be the life time of the creator of the work provided that person is still getting a significant percentage of the royalties. Otherwise something like 20 years.
That way companies might be less likely to force artists to sign away all rights to their work. So like “hey this kid could live another 50 years, so lets make sure he gets his percentage so we can keep control longer.”
How would that work for anything produced by a company? If you’re a continuing run of stories, and a random artist dies, copyright on parts of your product suddenly evaporate? Getting a job as an artist would be like making an insurance claim: with a risk assessment. Good luck getting work as you get older or sick.
Why would a copyright entering public domain cause a problem with your product? Public domain doesn’t mean you can’t use a work anymore, more the opposite really.
And they’d still get 20 years for a work made by a 90 year with a terminal illness.
Could companies not also say “hey, this kid could live another 50 years, let’s kill them soon so their work will be in the public domain and we can profit from it”? Or would companies not want the work in the public domain?
That would be first degree murder, which is kinda illegal.
How’s that working out for Boeing?
Too early to tell right now.
I dunno what the patent duration is, but copyright should probably just be 50 years max IMO. If you can’t make bank in that time without changing the idea up (and thus getting 50 years on the new version) you don’t deserve it.
Originally I think it was closer to 20 years. Frankly I think 25 years is plenty. A quarter century is enough time to reward the creator of an IP and it respects the fact that all IP is built on top of the public domain so it’s return is a natural part of the cycle.
In any case it’s not like after it expires you could not trade on being the original. It’s not like others could then come along and claim to have been the original creator. And if you kept making works those would each get their own period of copyright.
I agree with copyright in a sense that people should have a chance to profit from their ideas before it gets stolen, but you are right that it is way too long of a term. It stymies creativity when people can milk the same idea for many decades.
I would think for creative license like an idea for a cartoon or comic, 10-20 years is more than enough. Then they should try and make new characters or start competing with others trying to improve the character.
Dude the superman and batman stuff is gonna be nuts
Whoa! That’s illegal buddy. In more ways than one…
THERE ARE NO LAWS ON THE MOON, BATMAN!
Snow White and the seven dwarves are 200 years old and already in the public domain.
The stories are, but not the characters as drawn by Disney, it’s like classic music, you can use the Music commercially (given that you Perform I), but you can’t use a performance from someone else.
Same with classic stories, you can make your own snow white story, but you can’t use snow white as performed by Disney (yet)
I want all of them to live together in one big house, reality TV style!!
… it appears there are mockups:
Already working on a Bambi: First Blood movie.
How about a sequel to Bambi meets Godzilla?
A timeline of shit horror movies.
Ah, but they’ll lobby harder. Batman will enter the public domain in 2,635.
People said that for years before Mickey entered public domain. It didn’t happen.
Yeah, they had shifted for a Trademark strategy a few years before it happened. It was pretty clear they weren’t interested in making it happen again, or had finally got pushback from the folks they donated to about it, or something. And if Disney decided to drop it, I don’t think WB, with less than half the cash, will decide to try it.
Wait, you’re telling me I can draw Batman x Superman porn in 10 years and sell it?
Copyright should be 14 years.
I wonder if this will herald an era of more original content and less of all this reusing of stuff all the time.
Apparently it will herald an era of crappy horror movies.
It won’t change anything. Old stories and characters are boring. Studios do it from time to time but like Robinhood movies aren’t great investments and since they don’t own the IP don’t lead to anything else.
Community made content is just for fun, so who cares if people make repetitive fan films, art, games.
2035 will be so fun
oh yeah
Donald Duck is gonna be fire, I just know it.
Also, Disney has no rights to Snow White, they merely own the 7 very specificly named dwarves.
Stringy, Stingy, Stinky, Stampy, Strapping, Stressful, and Stephen Colbert
Strapping the real odd man out tbh
*in the US and some other countries. Not worldwide
I appreciate you posting here often but this is not a data visualization. This is just a graphic with dates on it
I see it as a way of visually presenting (character, year) data points.
[email protected] Surprised there isn’t more stuff with Winnie Pooh considering he’s in the public domain, pretty interesting graph tho
Can’t make any money off Winnie the Pooh content in China… for reasons.
