First time visiting BookBrowse? Get a free copy of our member's ezine today.

Something is afoot with copyright this Public Domain Day

BookBrowse News - The Full Story

Something is afoot with copyright this Public Domain Day

Jan 01 2023

Among the works liberated for the delight of American citizens this morning are: Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse; the final Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle; Fritz Lang’s seminal science-fiction film Metropolis; Alfred Hitchcock’s first thriller; and compositions by Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller. The interesting thing is that these were originally supposed to enter the public domain in 2003, but as Jennifer Jenkins, director of Duke University’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain puts it, “before this could happen, Congress hit a 20-year pause button and extended their copyright term to 95 years”.

The mechanism by which this legal heist was implemented was the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act (AKA “The Sonny Bono Act” or “The Mickey Mouse Protection Act” depending on your satirical tastes). In passing it, American legislators were simply continuing business as usual in the intellectual property business.

Source: The Guardian

More News Stories

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Colored Television
    Colored Television
    by Danzy Senna
    In Danzy Senna's Colored Television, writing professor and author Jane reflects on the advice of ...
  • Book Jacket: The Bookshop
    The Bookshop
    by Evan Friss
    Evan Friss's paean to bookstores, booksellers, and readers, The Bookshop: A History of the American ...
  • Book Jacket: There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven
    There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven
    by Ruben Reyes
    While it is common for children of immigrants to reflect on their ancestors' struggles through ...
  • Book Jacket: There Are Rivers in the Sky
    There Are Rivers in the Sky
    by Elif Shafak
    Elif Shafak's novel There Are Rivers in the Sky follows three disparate individuals separated by ...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    We'll Prescribe You a Cat
    by Syou Ishida

    Discover the bestselling Japanese novel celebrating the healing power of cats.

Book Club Giveaway!
Win Before the Mango Ripens

Before the Mango Ripens by Afabwaje Kurian

Both epic and intimate, this debut announces a brilliant new talent for readers of Imbolo Mbue and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Enter

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

As D A A D

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.