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Clifford Boudreaux
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 July 2012
Posts: 443
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| Posted: 20 October 2012 at 9:29am | IP Logged | 1
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The public domain serves a useful function, but we're definitely entering an age of perptual copyright since corporations own so many and they are functionally immortal people.
But as they lobby to renegotiate the terms of the copyright, we'll see the odd legal case where they no longer own the rights to things they once owned. Thems the breaks.
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Kevin Brown
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 31 May 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 9006
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| Posted: 20 October 2012 at 10:40am | IP Logged | 2
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So do we now assume that the Siegals & Shusters will be trying to reclaim the golden age Robotman, the Spectre and the Star Spangled Kid? Oh and don't forget Dr Occult. ******************************* They created those characters while under a work-for-hire contract for National. Oh, and ditto for Slam Bradley, who appeared before Superman. And that is something that rarely gets brought up, that they had been working for National a year before they sold Superman. They worked on creating Superman on their own during that time, trying to sell it as a comic strip. When that failed, they re-did art to fit as a comic book and sold it to National. So they knew full well how the business worked. They knew that in selling Superman they gave up all rights. Just like they knew it when they created Slam Bradley. Edit to add: By the way, Shuster had no hand in creating the characters you mentioned, other than Dr. Occult.
Edited by Kevin Brown on 20 October 2012 at 10:45am
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Clifford Boudreaux
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 July 2012
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| Posted: 20 October 2012 at 10:46am | IP Logged | 3
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But the terms of the Copyright Extension Act allowed them the right to reclaim the character because it was created outside the work for hire system. National only bought the copyright for the original duration... they knew what they were buying, too.
This isn't about moral or ethical considerations. This is all about the law. Extending the copyright couldn't retroactive extend the original terms of sale.
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Lars Johansson
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 04 June 2004
Location: Sweden
Posts: 6113
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| Posted: 20 October 2012 at 10:55am | IP Logged | 4
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In Europe there are no real time limits. At least not on an individual level if he has been dead 50 or 70 years and then the copyright expires. It's not like the creator will step up from the grave. Then there are his children or whatever who can own the rights. You however talk about Night of the Living Dead with a missing "C". That could never happen in Europe. But the worst are not Americans*, the real villains were the Communists who made many Sherlock Holmes movies in Estonia and Pippi Longstocking without asking. I'm sure, or I know that JB art has shown up there in one form or another somewhere. That's how they were. What I wonder though, what is worst, no money for the creator or that the characters are misused. I think personally that the USSR could have sent the scripts to the real copyright holders just to ask what they think even if they weren't going to pay any rubels.
* Added: when it comes to sloppy copyright law. A free USA can't of course be compared with a communistic prison country.
Edited by Lars Johansson on 20 October 2012 at 10:58am
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 20 October 2012 at 10:58am | IP Logged | 5
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The public domain serves a useful function…•• Can you give an example?
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Clifford Boudreaux
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Joined: 19 July 2012
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| Posted: 20 October 2012 at 12:36pm | IP Logged | 6
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Symphonies, school plays, any use of public domain characters, etc. There are plenty of ventures which deal mostly with public domain properties because they don't have the money to license owned work.
It's A Wonderful Life owes its classic status to its time in public domain.
Copyright law and patent laws are a balancing act between the public interests and the interests of owners. They give the owners a limited exclusive right to commercially exploit their invention, then it belongs to everyone.
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Clifford Boudreaux
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 July 2012
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| Posted: 20 October 2012 at 1:15pm | IP Logged | 7
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http://www.petitiononline.com/eldred/petition.html
This link talks of the benefits of the public domain in terms of our cultural heritage. Many works are languishing in obscurity (or in danger of being forever lost) because of the prohibitive cost of finding the copyright owners.
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Lars Johansson
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Joined: 04 June 2004
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| Posted: 20 October 2012 at 2:09pm | IP Logged | 8
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Why should something be lost because of a copyright?
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Stephen Churay
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Joined: 25 March 2009
Location: United States
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| Posted: 20 October 2012 at 2:36pm | IP Logged | 9
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To me, public domain always seemed to be perceived as a trash bin
for ideas, whether they were characters, songs, or stories, that went
unused or unwanted for too long, despite some real gems that reside
there. In my eyes, having a great idea or character go into the public
domain in never a good thing.
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Clifford Boudreaux
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| Posted: 20 October 2012 at 3:48pm | IP Logged | 10
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Films have to be restored and many are self-destructing because of the materials used.
They say there's legal issues but I don't know what they are.
Stephen, would you consider Sherlock Holmes, Frankenstein, Shakespeare, and so many more the "trash bin".
We've had a big budget Hollywood production of Holmes, a BBC update, and an up-coming American TV series. There's lots of life in him. Imagine if Pixar did a Superman movie? This is stuff not likely to happen if they're owned by someone.
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Ed Love
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Joined: 05 October 2004
Location: United States
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| Posted: 20 October 2012 at 3:58pm | IP Logged | 11
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Then you need to alter your perceptions a bit. First off, things don't go into public domain due to lack of use. That's trademarks. When they had to be renewed, they could pass into public domain and many times that happened in regards to comic characters because the publishers themselves were no longer in business. Plus, with some exceptions pretty much everything before late 1920s is public domain: Shakespeare, Dickens, Melville, Verne, H. G. Wells, Kipling, Poe, Crane, Shelly, O. Henry, Twain (Mark not Shania), much of Sherlock Holmes, works of Burroughs. There's mighty good company in that trash bin.
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David Plunkert
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Joined: 03 July 2012
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| Posted: 20 October 2012 at 4:51pm | IP Logged | 12
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The public domain serves a useful function…•• Can you give an example? iii Fantastic Four 274?
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