Last Updated on April 14, 2017 by Dave Farquhar
Please go sign the Petition to reclaim the Public Domain if you haven’t done so already. The man behind this is Eric Eldred, the “Eldred” in Eldred v. Ashcroft.
If you’re curious about what the public domain is or why it’s important, here’s an introduction.
Keep in mind that this is coming from a copyright holder. I retain copyright on the content of this website, for example, because parts of it may have commercial value. At times I have reworked entries from this blog and published them elsewhere. Quoting material from this site, linking to it, or even printing copies of it to retain for future reference falls under fair use and I don’t just allow it, I encourage it.
In 14 years, I doubt there’s going to be much use for the information here anymore. A historian may find it interesting. My main reason for protecting the copyright beyond that timeframe would probably be self-protection. Copyright would allow me to keep this content obscure.
Think about how many books, record albums, and movies originally published in 1989 are still in print. Some of them, like the movie Batman and Disintegration by The Cure remain very commercially viable. But the majority of media produced in that year is now out of print and difficult to find. There’s limited interest in it, but that interest may be so limited that even used record stores and used bookstores aren’t all that interested in carrying a lot of it.
That’s not to say it’s useless. It’s still valuable for research. It’s still valuable for other things too. You can make new media by combining old media. A budding artist can combine out-of-copyright audio and video to make new things and legally do things with it. For some examples, look at the World At War collection.
Access to public domain material today is difficult. But disk space is dirt cheap now. Bandwidth is getting cheaper. Access is going to become easier and easier. Admittedly, most of the material created from public domain sources is going to be at least as bad as, if not worse than, the source material. But there will be masterpieces as well. Disney got its start by using the public domain, after all.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.
Disney didn’t just get its start that way – it made, perhaps, the majority of its money that way. Even the late stuff, like Pocahontas and Hunchback and so forth, is based on public domain. (Which explains why one used to see all the rip-offs near the checkout lines in Wal-Mart, although one isn’t sure whether to call a rip-off of a Disney movie, which is itself a kind of rip-off, a rip-off.) Pixar is the only original thing working for Disney, it seems (I’m not talking Disney corporate, which includes ABC and Touchstone and all those things), and even Pixar made its first big movie based on a bunch of licensed toy images. Interesting that the main characters in the Toy Story movies, at least, were always original (Buzz and Woody) – that way the bulk of the merchandising still puts money in Eisner’s pocket. [/conspiracy]
I’m # 12278.
Anything that is created should exist if someone can use it. If it’s commercially viable then the owner should maintain it, sell it, or turn it to the public.
Anything that’s not viable should be public.
Joseph,
Define ‘commercially viable’…
Disney (the M$ of copyright) could generate perpetual copyright just be claiming all their copyrights are “assets” of the company and should therefore remain copyrighted..
As opposed the system they have now, which is effectively perpetual, when copyright comes due, they get their “paid representitives” , Sonny Bono for example (although he is dead, but I’m sure he could still get things done) to extend it for another 25 years..
So, I aggree it would be a good thing, we could get back to pretending our “elected representitives actually represent our interests…
Jimbo