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When will Mickey Mouse enter the public domain?
(www.deseret.com)
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this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2023
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Copyright is broken, but I am not sure how to fix it. I would shorten the term substantially but then extend it when new works are created. That way Disney could own the mouse forever. But as soon as they stop creating new shows with the character it enters the public domain quickly.
The fix is easy. It's already in the constitution. A 14yr initial term, then one 14 yr optional extension. That's it. You can profit from your good idea for 30 yrs, the good idea the culture around you helped ferment, then every one else our nation can share in it, enriching us all.
Thats the compromise the founders made between society and inventors when it took 6 months for a letter to travel across an ocean. With instant information access, copyright lasting for 140yr (lifetime of creator + 70yrs) and counting makes zero fucking sense.
Disney loses an iron grip on mickey mouse? Good. Gives others a chance to create wonders with an old idea, a character that is far past part of everyone's cultureal heritage. A charector that should not be constrained to one entity forever. The exact same way disney used someone elses fairy tales to create its wealth, we should be able to use the fairy tales they created nearly 100 yrs ago.
If they need more money, they can keep innovating. Hitting gold in 1936 should not carry on into 2023.
the us constitution does not set copyright length. it grants congress the power to guarantee to persons exclusive right to their work for a limited time.
Good catch. The 14 + 14yrs is actually in the copyright act of 1790, which was signed into law by president George Washington.
Still, being that it was agreed upon in the 1st ever US congress and signed by the first ever US president, I think its pretty easy to find the founders intent for copyright law.
You're thinking of trademarks, which require an ongoing usage in order to maintain.
Copyright and patent have limited terms in order to achieve their intended purpose, which is to advance the arts. If you create something new, you get a monopoly on using it for a limited time. If you want to keep selling your art after that time, you have to make new art. This was more obvious when the copyright term was 14 years. Thanks in part to Disney, it's now become so long that I think it has the opposite effect. Big creators know they will have such a long monopoly--the lifetime of the author plus seventy more years--the incentive isn't to make new art, but to reuse existing art. Fuck Disney.