[pd-discuss] Public Domain Day: US waits for Godot

[Maarten Zeinstra]

US Is Left Waiting For Godot On Public Domain Day: Once Again, Absolutely Nothing Enters The Public Domain This Year

Every January 1st is supposed to be "Public Domain Day," in which all works published in a certain year move into the public domain. And while some  parts of the world get to celebrate Public Domain Day this year with the freeing of works by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Paul Klee, Leon Trotsky, Walter Benjamin and others, here in the US, we come up empty yet again. Not a single work entered the public domain in the US on January 1st, thanks (yet again) to constant copyright extensions, which include retroactive extensions. Retroactive extensions, of course, make absolutely no sense. If the point of copyright is to act as incentive for the creation of new works, that incentive obviously worked in getting those works created. To then retroactively extend the copyright is to, quite blatantly, go back on the deal, and take away the rights of the public with no recourse or compensation. 

read more at: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110102/13551712487/us-is-left-waiting-godot-public-domain-day-once-again-absolutely-nothing-enters-public-domain-this-year.shtml

Maarten Zeinstra

Kennisland | Knowledgeland 

T: +31.20.575.6720 | M: +31.6.43.053.919 | S: mzeinstra
www.kennisland.nl | www.knowledgeland.org

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