“Forgotten Hollywood”- In the Public Domain…

Posted on December 20, 2018 by raideoman1 | No Comments

Manny P. here…

“`For the first time in over twenty years, copyrighted works will enter the Public Domain. At midnight on New Year’s Eve, all works first published in the United States in 1923 will enter the public domain. It has been twenty-one years since the last mass expiration of copyright.

“`After January 1st, any record label can issue an updated version of the 1923 tune Yes! We Have No Bananas; a civic light opera can produce Theodore Pratt’s stage adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray; and any historian can use Winston Churchill’s The World Crisis. And a movie maker can remake Cecil B DeMille’s initial The Ten Commandments, and post it on YouTube.

“`For academics fearful of quoting from copyrighted texts, teachers violating law with each photocopy, and modern-day artists in search of inspiration, the event is cause for approval. Even fierce advocates for copyright agree it is time to release these works.

“`Blame Mickey Mouse for the long wait. In 1998, Disney was one of a loud choir of corporate voices demanding added copyright protection.  At the time, works published before January 1, 1978 were entitled to copyright protection for seventy-five years. Works published were under copyright for the life of the creator, plus fifty years.  Steamboat Willie, Mickey Mouse’s initial appearance on screen, in 1928, was set to enter the public domain in 2004.

“`Congress eventually passed the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, named for the late singer, songwriter, and California representative, which added twenty years to the then-current copyright term. Mickey would be protected until 2024, and no copyright work would enter the public domain again until 2019, creating a bizarre twenty-year hiatus between the release of works from 1922 and those from 1923.

“`Digital compendia such as Internet Archive, Google Books, and HathiTrust will make tens of thousands of books available. They and others will also add newspapers, magazines, movies, and other materials.

“`Expect the same each January 1st until 2073, revealing long-overlooked works from the Harlem RenaissanceGreat Depression, World War II, and beyond.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 20th, 2018 at 8:48 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


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