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THE PUBLIC DOMAIN IS COMMUNISM
ITEM: Duke U’s Center For The Study Of The Public Domain releases a list of books and films published/released in 1954 that would have entered the public domain at the beginning of this year if the copyright laws hadn’t been changed in 1976.
Books:
Films:
BACKGROUND: Before 1978, copyright was granted to the creator/owner of the work for 28 years, renewable for another 28 years. In 1978, that changed to the owner’s lifetime + 50 years. (It’s now +70 years for authors, and +95 years for corporate “works for hire”, which means anything owned by record labels and movie studios, both of which have done most of the lobbying to have copyright coverage extended in the first place on the grounds that they’re not done making billions off them yet.)
That means books and films copyrighted in 1954 would have entered the public domain this year, but now won’t until 2050 – assuming Disney et al doesn’t push for another change in the law (again) that will extend copyright coverage even further (infinity would be nice, I reckon).
Which may or may not mean anything to you. It does to me, because we have the Public Domain for a good reason (which you can read here). And while I’m all for copyright allowing a creator’s heirs to benefit financially, there is such a thing as going too far.
BONUS POINTS: Add ten (10) Irony Points if you noticed that Disney's film version of 20000 Leagues Under the Sea is based on a public-domain work.
Share and enjoy,
This is dF
Books:
- The first two volumes of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of Rings trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers
- Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot (his own translation/adaptation of the original version in French, En attendant Godot, published in 1952)
- Kingsley Amis' Lucky Jim
- Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception
- Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!
- Pauline Réage's Histoire d'O
- Fredric Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent, subtitled “The influence of comic books on today's youth"
- Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
- Mac Hyman’s No Time for Sergeants
- Alan Le May’s The Searchers
- C.S. Lewis’ The Horse and His Boy, the fifth volume of The Chronicles of Narnia
- Alice B. Toklas’ The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook
- Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend
- Arthur C. Clarke’s The Deep Range
- Robert Heinlein’s The Star Beast
Films:
- On the Waterfront, directed by Elia Kazan; starring Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Rod Steiger, Karl Malden, and Lee J. Cobb
- Director Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, starring James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr, and Thelma Ritter
- The original Japanese-language release of Seven Samurai, directed by Akira Kurasawa; starring Takashi Shimura and Toshir? Mifune
- Dial M for Murder, directed by Hitchcock; starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, and Robert Cummings
- Walt Disney's 20000 Leagues Under the Sea, starring Kirk Douglas and James Mason
- Creature from the Black Lagoon
- The Barefoot Contessa, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner, and Edmond O’Brien
BACKGROUND: Before 1978, copyright was granted to the creator/owner of the work for 28 years, renewable for another 28 years. In 1978, that changed to the owner’s lifetime + 50 years. (It’s now +70 years for authors, and +95 years for corporate “works for hire”, which means anything owned by record labels and movie studios, both of which have done most of the lobbying to have copyright coverage extended in the first place on the grounds that they’re not done making billions off them yet.)
That means books and films copyrighted in 1954 would have entered the public domain this year, but now won’t until 2050 – assuming Disney et al doesn’t push for another change in the law (again) that will extend copyright coverage even further (infinity would be nice, I reckon).
Which may or may not mean anything to you. It does to me, because we have the Public Domain for a good reason (which you can read here). And while I’m all for copyright allowing a creator’s heirs to benefit financially, there is such a thing as going too far.
BONUS POINTS: Add ten (10) Irony Points if you noticed that Disney's film version of 20000 Leagues Under the Sea is based on a public-domain work.
Share and enjoy,
This is dF