Will we see another copyright extension in 2018?

[The Mikado]

As you no doubt know, in 1998, Congress passed a 20 year extension to copyright, extending the period it takes for a work to enter the public domain from 75 years to 95 years and freezing the public domain as things created before 1923. 95 years from 1923 is coming right up in 2018, and many classic works from the 1920s will become public domain over the next decade under the current law. George Gershwin's musical masterpiece "Rhapsody in Blue" was composed in 1924 and will be one of the first major works to be set free, which will no doubt be quite a relief to United Airlines, which has been paying royalties to the Gershwins for decades to use that piece in their ads. The Great Gatsby, written in 1925, will soon follow, lowering the costs high school students across the country pay when they buy books. Of course, Steamboat Willie, the first Disney cartoon featuring Mickey Mouse, came out in 1927, and therein lies the real problem.

To me, the biggest benefit of the public domain rolling on is all of the books and movies that no one cares about except specialists and preservationists that have been out of print for 50 years or more but languish in obscurity because no one can digitize or distribute them due to copyright that the holder probably doesn't even know exists. Think of the travel memoirs or the current events books or the memoirs of random obscure people that historians of the 1920s have to travel to specific libraries to access when they could easily be placed on Google Books and available to everyone free of charge anywhere in the world. Think of the obscure silent movies that could be placed on Youtube free of charge to improve everyone's cultural literacy on the history of cinema that currently sit unseen in vaults because of copyrights that no one makes any money off of. Were it just me, I'd happily take a situation where copyright ended up extended on the condition that someone actually apply for an extension every 20 years, to allow all the forgotten and unwanted stuff to enter the public domain and have a second chance to shine for the benefit of historians, sociologists, music and art scholars, and enthusiasts everywhere. A situation where Rhapsody in Blue stayed in the Gershwins' hands while obscure pieces of the same era that no one remembers became part of our shared cultural heritage would be a far better situation than everything remaining off limits.

[The Mikado]

I can't help but feel that the forces for copyright extension may have to compromise this time out, especially given the increasingly heavy hitters like Google that have a vested interest in not extending it that don't exactly have small pocketbooks. Google was in its infancy 1998, now they have the world's largest and most-viewed collection of public-domain literature, and own Youtube, which would benefit from having a large array of public-domain songs and movies to supplement its catalog.

I wouldn't be surprised to see some sort of scenario where the idea of having to fill out paperwork to extend copyright rather than it happening automatically is brought back...it used to be the system anyway. It keeps Disney and those that actually make money off of their copyrighted materials happy while letting the stuff that everyone's forgotten enter the public domain.

[The Mikado]

Bump from 11 months later. This is an issue that'll have to be addressed by the next Congress, but this Congress is showing that gridlock is the order of the day. I'm actually getting optimistic that Congress won't be able to pass anything, copyright extension or no.

[The Mikado]

Massive bump from 2 1/2 years ago. How has this question changed? Will we see a copyright extension next year? Can this Congress pass anything?

[The Mikado]

I just find it very interesting that we're three months into this Congress and legislation on this topic hasn't even been introduced yet.

[The Mikado]

I just find it very interesting that we're three months into this Congress and legislation on this topic hasn't even been introduced yet.

Who would be the main industry proponents of doing the extension?  Disney?  Maybe Iger isn't going to push it this time as an act of populism to promote his 2020 presidential candidacy.  

Last time the big player was Disney, followed by the estates of a number of writers and musicians from the 1920s, especially George Gershwin. (Anything from before 1923 is public domain now..."Rhapsody in Blue" came out in 1924 and the Gershwin family is still making a fortune off of that piece today. Hell, United Airlines still uses it in all of their ads...and if it were public domain, United Airlines would save a fortune.)

EDIT: Presumably as the public domain line moves over time into the 1930s, the current owners of the MGM catalog (Sony) and the Universal Pictures catalog (...Comcast, apparently???) will get upset, as a lot of the MGM and Universal movies from the 1930s are still actually watched by people.

[The Mikado]

1/6th of the way through the 115th Congress and absolutely no action on this front.

[The Mikado]

So...we're now a third of the way through Congress and no legislation on this topic has been introduced. I think it's quite likely that we'll hit Jan 1st, 2019, see the works of 1923 turn public domain, and that'll cause a panic with copyright holders that might see the next Congress try to take action.

[The Mikado]

Either way, I'm pretty confident that THIS Congress won't pass anything. I think the question becomes purely whether things entering the public domain again on New Years Day, 2019 scares the s**t out of certain companies and makes them redouble their efforts in the next Congress.

[The Mikado]

Update: one year left on the clock, and there's been zero effort for Congress to move on this.

I'm thinking that 3/4ths of the people polled in this thread three years ago were wrong on this.

[The Mikado]

I'd personally be down for 30 years with an option to renew for 30 more for a small (actually small, like $500 or so) fee. That way, the vast, vast majority of works that no one actually cares about would become public domain when people forget that dad wrote a book back in the day because it's been out of print or whatever. That'd also put the maximum time for works that people actually DO care about at 60 years, which is, IMO, a very reasonable time.

[The Mikado]

Bumping this four year old thread to say all the people predicting we would were dead wrong. Works from 1923 enter public domain on January 1st, first time public domain has expanded in over 40 years.

[The Mikado]

Public domain day is tomorrow, for the first time in 40 years. All the people who voted yes here were wrong.

[The Mikado]

Public domain day is tomorrow, for the first time in 40 years. All the people who voted yes here were wrong.

Bumping this thread AGAIN. Works entered the public domain on Wednesday, just like they did a year before. Everything from 1924 is public domain in the US, people.

It's amazing how wrong so many people were earlier in the decade when people were more sure Congress would extend copyright. I think the mistake was thinking that Congress would be capable of passing anything whatsoever, which they no longer can do.

[The Mikado]

Megabump as once again we are about to celebrate Public Domain Day in the USA as everything made in 1926 enters the public domain.

This thread's knee-jerk cynicism is so misguided. People really, really underestimated how Congress' basic bias is to never pass any significant legislation ever.

[The Mikado]

The late 19th/early 20th century law of "28 year term with opportunity to renew for another 28 years" for a grand total of 56 years was probably the optimal solution we ever hit on. Even tagging on a third optional renewal term to bring the total up to 84 would've been fine, as most people with things that no one uses anymore wouldn't opt to renew the first time and DEFINITELY wouldn't the second time so only really productive things 56 years out would get a third term.

If I could wave a wand that'd be the structure I'd pick. Third term would have a much higher fee than the second, under my system. Say, first renewal would be a fee of $5,000, enough that any work that had totally lost steam 28 years after publication would just default to public domain but anything anyone was still using wouldn't. Second renewal would be a fee of $50,000, and most works 56 years after publication just wouldn't be worth that, but the works of really talented and prestigious artists would. 84 years after publication even those would be public. Seems fair for just about everyone and accomplishes the goal of having, like, 90-95% of things that are essentially worthless enter public domain relatively early where other people can adapt them and turn them into actually valuable things again.

[The Mikado]

Thank goodness there doesn't seem to be any appetite in Congress for another extension. Rare W for the deadlocked dysfunctional state of American politics, I guess.

I don't think you can attribute this to deadlock though, because as deadlocked as Congress is right now and all that, there was really no push from Disney to extend again anyway. In fact I recall hearing there was a report some anonymous Disney executive admitted that they made a choice to not do this for fear of backlash. People are now much more plugged in to this sort of thing now than in 1998, and the bad press Disney would get would be quite the PR blow. Look at what happened with SOPA about a decade ago.

And Disney is already making Republicans angry, this is really a fight they couldn't win.

Also it's kind of a myth that Disney got the 1998 extension passed. They supported and lobbied for it sure, but it was really due to pressure from Europe which extended copyrights in 1993, to avoid having works be public domain in the US and not Europe, there hasn't been an EU extension of copyrights since then, so thus no need for another extension on those grounds.

There's also a bunch of companies with vested interests in wanting more things in the public domain now, most notably Google. "Big corporations" are split on this issue in a way they weren't in 1998.