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Two lawyers are still fighting to keep Buck Rogers from entering the public domain, something which should have begun 70 years after the author's death. Philip Nowlan, the stories' author, died in 1940 and so his works should have joined the public domain starting 2010. Part of the strategy from the copyright trolls has been to drag out the process with multiple lawsuits.
Back in October 2015 we brought you the story of the Buck Rogers Copyright Trolls, two lawyers who were fighting to keep Buck Rogers from entering the public domain using the discredited Sherlock Holmes system of licensing. Two and a half years later, Louise Geer and Dan Herman are still at it, using every trick in the book to keep a beloved tale out of the public domain, where it firmly belongs. Along the way the pair have stiffed multiple law firms, and currently are abusing a Bankruptcy Court in Pennsylvania in a Hail Mary effort to...well, it's not exactly clear what they're trying to do.
From Boing Boing : The continuing saga of Buck Rogers and the Copyright Trolls
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Alfred on Monday July 02 2018, @03:25PM (7 children)
The compromise is to have first copyright be free and every following renewal to cost increasingly more. That way Disney can continue to copyright mickey mouse crap and all of us can copyright our podcasts or whatever that we won't care about in 10-20 years.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by crafoo on Monday July 02 2018, @04:48PM
Agreed.
It seems to me that the copyright situation is, in general, an excellent indicator of the balance of power between corporations and individual citizens. Who benefits from the newest laws? Who has their interests served by the courts? By Congress? By law enforcement? Who can personally and effectively defend their rights by both financial and physical force?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 02 2018, @05:21PM (3 children)
Yup, my proposal was that you get 20 years free.
After that, you need to register the work with the PTO (which could then be the PTCO?), with an estimated worth of the work.
Then, each year you must pay a tax on the worth of the work, where T = W x (Y - 20)/100, (T=tax, W=stated worth, Y=year after publishing) so the 21st year you pay 1%, 22nd, 2% etc. Each year you are allowed to change the estimated worth. The catch is that you are legally bound to accept any offer to buy the rights for anything exceeding that estimate, the new owners can re-estimate the worth upon purchase. Failure to pay for a full year lapses the work into the public domain. The list will be publicly available through the PT(C)O, and any work over 20 years old not in that list will be assumed to be PD (defensible in court).
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Monday July 02 2018, @07:44PM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Monday July 02 2018, @11:46PM
Perhaps this should be that you have to EITHER:
At some point, it needs to become economically unviable to continue to pay for extended copyright.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Reziac on Tuesday July 03 2018, @03:10AM
Someone on the Green Site once proposed this:
Initial copyright registration, say for 14 years from first publication date: free
Renewal, say for 7 years: fee, inexpensive enough for entry-level users
Every 7 years thereafter: renewal fee doubles
So how much you pay is directly proportional to how long you hang onto it. And after a certain point, even Mickey Mouse isn't worth the cost.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Kawumpa on Tuesday July 03 2018, @06:42AM (1 child)
It's not hampering creativity at all, in fact it's fostering creativity, though not necessarily in a way you and I might prefer.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by HiThere on Tuesday July 03 2018, @05:37PM
I want to mod the parent up, but it doesn't really fit into any of the categories. Underrated would work, but I can't use that because nobody else has moded it. So I'm posting a reply so that more people will notice the parent.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.