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| Now you know who's steering the ship. |
We live in an age of unprecedented consumption of media. Creative works have never been so
widely available to access, as well as create. Indeed, the so called Democratization of
tools, and the interconnectedness of this digital age has allowed for a wonderful growth for
both independent creators and large media conglomerates as well.
Sadly, our current copyright laws do not reflect this. Due to awful retroactive tampering
with copyright durations, no creative works will enter the Public Domain until 2033. That's
19 years, far too long a time, and that's assuming they won't tamper with it again before
that. Copyright law, at it's heart, is meant to help authors support themselves of their
creative works. However, as of now, many works of long-dead authors remain locked behind
doors, sometimes quietly withering away, the creative elements languishing away.
This is why I say all works between 1960 whose authors are no longer living should move to the Public Domain.
Everybody stands to gain from more works entering the Public Domain. If it wasn't for the
Public Domain we wouldn't have this year's Noah. Or Ben Hur. Or Spartacus. Or The Ten Commandments, with
Charlton Heston. We wouldn't have Dreamworks' Prince of Egypt.
We Wouldn't have Disney's version of Snow White. Or Pinocchio. Or Robin Hood, Aladdin,
Cinderella, The Hunchback of Notre Dam. We wouldn't have Frozen or Tangled, based on "The
Snow Queen" and "Rapunzel", respectively. We wouldn't have Scrooge McDuck!
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| Worth a 1000 crappy Christmas Carol retreads. |
We wouldn't have the musical Les Miserables. We wouldn't have The Wiz, or Wicked. We
wouldn't have the modern Zombie genre. We wouldn't have American McGee's Alice. Or Tim Burton's Alice. Or The 3 Musketeers. Pick whichever version you like best.
These are all things that things that the Public Domain has given us. What has the Sonny
Bono act of 1998 given us? Nothing. That's not a knock on it. This is what it was meant to
do. I think, that it is reasonable that works of authors who have passed away
stand to benefit in no way from their works. So I ask you, sign this petition to bring back balance to the Public Domain, which for so many years has been
skewed in favor of big interests. Don't wait for them to make the first move and extend copyright yet again!
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