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from the Please-keep-the-MOUSE-out-of-the-HOUSE-(and-Senate) dept.
Mark your calendar: on January 1, 2019, works will again begin entering the public domain in the United States.
On that day, one year's worth of copyrighted works — that were first published in 1923 — will become freely available to all.
A long list of affected works is available on Lifehacker, including movies, books, music, and art.
For 20 long years, the progression of works into the public domain stopped when copyright was extended in the Sonny Bono Act in 1998 to protect Disney's "Mickey Mouse"
Speaking of Disney, they're the ones who lobbied for such long copyright terms, because in 1998 Mickey Mouse's first appearance (in the 1928 cartoon Steamboat Willie) was close to losing its copyright. But after the Sonny Bono Act, Now that first Mickey Mouse appearance will enter the public domain in 2024.
It is an open question whether Disney will attempt to push for further extensions and changes in copyright by 2024. In the meantime however The Atlantic notes
A Google spokesperson confirmed that Google Books stands ready. Its software is already set up so that on January 1 of each year, the material from 95 years earlier that's currently digitized but only available for searching suddenly switches to full text.
Anyone else going to buy a Steamboat Willie shirt in 2024 and not one moment sooner?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @02:56PM
Current copyright law has been twisted by lobbyists (paid for by those 'big content companies' i.e., Disney) into protecting the revenue stream of old but still profitable creations (Mickey Mouse, etc.).
This, of course, flies counter to the intent in the constitution, which was to provide an incentive to create new stuff by having the old stuff's protections expire in a limited time frame. Why create any new stuff when you (Disney) can continue to milk the profit teat of something you created almost a hundred years ago (Mickey Mouse)?
The solution that we have, as non paid lobbyist's, is to vote out any politician that falls for the Disney spell, and to not buy anything Disney if we can possibly avoid it. No going to Disney parks, no buying Disney DVD's (whether or not they are in or out of the 'vault'), no buying Disney anything.