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chromas [soylentnews.org] writes:

From Game politics [gamepolitics.com]:

On January 1st of every year under US Copyright Law, creative and scientific works that have reached the end of their copyright terms go into the public domain. These works are then open for use and distribution by the public without restriction.

Prior to 1976, one could get a copyright on their work for 28 years and extend that copyright for another 28 years if they so wished. After Congress extended copyright terms, all works previously covered by copyright, and all new works, had their terms extended automatically to life of the creator plus 50 years.

Every year on January 1st, The Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University publishes a list of all the works that would have gone into the public domain [duke.edu] had the 1976 copyright term extensions not been passed. Had copyright terms remained at a maximum of 56, we would see a good number of works enter the public domain. Sadly, under the US’s extended terms no works will go into the public domain until 2019, that is if Congress doesn’t extend copyright terms again.

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