Featured image: Old Books. SOURCE clipartpal.com (Public-Domain).
Here is another change in the law that is designed to keep information out of the hands of the people. Many of these old books, magazine and films are setting in rooms slowly rotting away. This is a horrible form of permanent censorship. . . EDITOR
” Even more shockingly, the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that Congress can take back works from the public domain.” . . . From article below.
From Center for the Study of the Public Domain
What Could Have Entered the Public Domain on January 1, 2013?
Under the law that existed until 1978 … Works from 1956
The Best Things in Life are NOT Free
Current US law extends copyright for 70 years after the date of the author’s death, and corporate “works-for-hire” are copyrighted for 95 years after publication. But prior to the 1976 Copyright Act (which became effective in 1978), the maximum copyright term was 56 years – an initial term of 28 years, renewable for another 28 years. Under those laws, works published in 1956 would enter the public domain on January 1, 2013, where they would be “free as the air to common use.” Under current copyright law, we’ll have to wait until 2052.1And no published works will enter our public domain until 2019. (The law in the EU is different – thousands of works from authors who died in 1942 are entering their public domain on January 1.) Even more shockingly, the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that Congress can take back works from the public domain. Could Shakespeare, Plato, or Mozart be pulled back into copyright? The Supreme Court gave no reason to think that they could not be. . . . Read Complete Report
Image: Collage of some of the movies that would have gone into public domain in 2013 if the laws had not been changed. SOURCE: http://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2013/pre-1976
Published with featured article.
