I had difficulty believing that this day would ever come.
As the ball dropped over Times Square last night, all copyrighted works published in 1923 fell into the public domain (with a few exceptions). Everyone now has the right to republish them or adapt them for use in new works.
It’s the first time this has happened in 21 years.
The short version: they’ve been extending copyright on creative works for almost as long as I’ve been alive. They’d undoubtedly love to do it again, except that at the moment there’s a bunch of people out there with Views on the subject, legal buzzsaws, and an uncritical willingness to use the latter in service to the former. And I’m pushing my self-imposed line on this post as it is, but by God it’s nice to see us get a little bit of our cultural history freed up for later use.
I was horrified to realize that at least two generations have never been exposed to James Thurber. That he’s no longer in most libraries, and most of his stuff doesn’t enter the public domain for another 30 years (if then)!
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This is a crime against our culture.
And being legal only makes it more offensive.
So Disney has five years to extend the protection on Walt’s first Mickey Mouse production.
Disney may not want that fight, particularly since trademark still gives them substantial protections.
Not to mention while Steamboat Willie is a historically significant film, it’s not exactly watchable by modern standards.
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Mew