• ninjan@lemmy.mildgrim.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    163
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    In my opinion LotR should’ve already entered the public domain but thanks to Disney well have to wait until 2044 for that.

    • hh93@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      59
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Can’t have the already well-off children go without their steady income that they didn’t have to work for…

      • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        25
        ·
        1 year ago

        Well how else are we supposed to encourage people to be related to people who develop intellectual property? It makes sense from a neponomic standpoint.

        • sqgl@beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Believe it or not, some people do work extra hard in order to ensure their descendants have an easy life. I’m not weighing in on whether that is wise or not but it is definitely a thing.

          • DroneRights [it/its]@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            6
            arrow-down
            4
            ·
            1 year ago

            Yeah, and that’s why white people are richer than black people today, even though slavery ostensibly ended 200 years ago. It’s time that we outlaw this behaviour.

            • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              1 year ago

              you’re gonna get downvoted but no amount of downvotes will change the fact that black people weren’t allowed to own things in america until most things were already owned by white people.

        • sadreality@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          11
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Obama coming out of retirement to authorize this drone strike!

          “We will not stand by while our national security interests are being assaulted by the axis of evil”

            • sadreality@kbin.social
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              11
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              i threw that in to keep satire level headed… this aint about Obama but rather the US government behavior overall.

      • frezik@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        The books go into public domain in 20 years. Now that Christopher Tolkien is out of the way (who tended to block a lot of stuff, for better or worse) , the current heirs want as much out of it as they can.

        20 years might sound like a lot, but that’s about as much time as between the Peter Jackson movies and now.

        • Crit@links.hackliberty.org
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          13
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Only because it’s not as important for them to keep it, they make a lot of money from other properties

          • DrPop@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            11
            ·
            1 year ago

            It’s not just about money, but their image. Nintendo does the exact same thing with fan games that make $0.

          • Telorand@reddthat.com
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            No, they can’t extend any further. The copyright has a hard expiration at the end of 2023.

            • pbjamm@beehaw.org
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              8
              ·
              1 year ago

              I remember thinking that in 1998 too. It is too late to extend copyright for Steamboat Willie before it expires but that does not mean that corps like Disney won be fighting tooth and nail to extend it again in a few years when things they actually care about are expiring.

              • Telorand@reddthat.com
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                8
                ·
                1 year ago

                Yeah, Mickey is definitely going to be something they’ll fight for in the future.

                I don’t find it probable they’ll succeed in convincing Congress that copyright life should be significantly greater than a century, since that’s nice and round and excessive, but we live in a corporation-first capitalist hellscape, so who knows?

              • Telorand@reddthat.com
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                5
                ·
                1 year ago

                They have, but they didn’t. And it’s not a foregone conclusion that they’d succeed. The longest copyright lifespan is currently 105 years from what I read, and I wonder if they could grease enough palms to convince people it should be longer than a century.

                We’re already in “excessively long” territory, and Congress still has a few reasonable people left, so I’m not convinced it would happen.

      • Telorand@reddthat.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        You can’t just extend copyright indefinitely. It’s not like a patent, where you can make minute changes and claim it’s a new product. The original works have a copyright limit of 95 years after the first date of publish (thanks Disney and other corporate lobbyists).

        If we go by The Return of the King, it was published in 1955. That means the words, the story, the settings, and the characters will be public domain in 2050. Steamboat Willie, on the other hand, was published in 1928. That means it expires at the end of this year. Unless Disney can convince Congress to change copyright law again, these copyrights all have hard expiration dates.

        ETA: Disney might have a case where they can claim copyright on the information they added or changed from the original works, just like how they can still claim copyright over Mickey after losing Steamboat Willie.

        And I’m sure they will, because fuck society, amirite? /s

        • frezik@midwest.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          Works made for hire are 95 years from publication. LotR is not a work for hire, so it goes by life of the author plus 75 years. It goes public domain in 2044.

        • Auli@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          They already do. Winnie the Pooh is public domain but not Disneys version the one everyone thinks of.