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From Motherboard
When the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve, movies, songs, and books created in the United States in 1923—even beloved cartoons such as Felix the Cat—will be eligible for anyone to adapt, repurpose, or distribute as they please.
A 20-year freeze on copyright expirations has prevented a cache of 1923 works from entering the public domain, including Paramount Pictures' The Ten Commandments, Charlie Chaplin's The Pilgrim, and novels by Aldous Huxley.
Such a massive release of iconic works is unprecedented, experts say—especially in the digital age, as the last big dump predated Google.
In 2013, Paul Heald, a law professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, conducted a survey of books for sale on Amazon. He found that more books were for sale from the 1880s than the 1980s.
(Score: 2) by jelizondo on Tuesday January 01 2019, @12:08AM (1 child)
Hating some classics does not mean hating all...
I've spent about 50 years reading everything I can get my hands on, an average of a book every 4 to 6 weeks. From Plato to Smolin, passing thru saint Thomas Aquinas, Yates, Steinbeck, Paz, García Márquez and many others.
However I never made it past page 17 of Moby Dick. I tried many times, it was like swallowing sand.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Tuesday January 01 2019, @12:45AM
Really! I read the tale of the White Whale shortly after Melville published, and found it fascinating. Of course, it is a series of long digressions about life at sea and any number of other things, which I found almost philosophical. Perhaps it might be good to take a look at Melville's other works? Like Typee [gutenberg.org]?
Sand must be swallowed slowly, but it sticks with you. On the other hand, the millennial asshole who discards anything pre-1985 is dismissing all classics, so even Runaway's accusation of illiteracy is on the mark.