Copyrighted stuff was originally meant to expire after 30 years when the system first started after which it becomes public domain like all the books over at project Gutenberg. Just enough time for inventors and makers to capitalize on their creations but not enough time for them to sit on that creation forever which pressures further invention within a lifetime.
However Disney did not like this one bit. Mickey mouse was simply too iconic branding for them to loose to the public. So instead they spent many many many millions of dollars lobbying politicians to get the expiration date extended practically indefinitely. Now its the lifetime of the original author + 80 years after IIRC (edit: its actually lifetime +70 years)
Copyright has stalled so severely that the latest works to come into public domain are from the 19th century. Edit: its actually early 20th century
Emplemon did an excellent video about just how screwed up copyright has become, I highly recommend you give it a watch
What does this all mean?
Copyrighted stuff was originally meant to expire after 30 years when the system first started after which it becomes public domain like all the books over at project Gutenberg. Just enough time for inventors and makers to capitalize on their creations but not enough time for them to sit on that creation forever which pressures further invention within a lifetime.
However Disney did not like this one bit. Mickey mouse was simply too iconic branding for them to loose to the public. So instead they spent many many many millions of dollars lobbying politicians to get the expiration date extended practically indefinitely. Now its the lifetime of the original author + 80 years after IIRC (edit: its actually lifetime +70 years)
Copyright has stalled so severely that the latest works to come into public domain are from the 19th century. Edit: its actually early 20th century
Emplemon did an excellent video about just how screwed up copyright has become, I highly recommend you give it a watch
Just to correct a few details that don’t contradict your main point:
Life of author + 70 years.
Things from 1927 entered the public domain in 2023: https://americanwritersmuseum.org/new-works-to-enter-the-public-domain-in-2023/.
Thank you!
Great answer, will check out the video. Thanks.
That was the weirdest video essay I’ve ever seen. Liked and subscribed lol