Age of the Geek

By: 
Travis Fischer

The never ending story
     Let’s recap.
     Last week I relayed the good news that “Happy Birthday To You” is now free from copyright after 80 years of ownership by people who didn’t write it. While this is happy news indeed, it should be noted that the copyright was set to expire in 2020 regardless.
     Yes, it may not seem like it, but in theory, copyrights don’t actually last forever.
     I say “in theory” because the laws regarding the length of time something can be copyrighted seem to extend every few decades.
     When the Copyright Act of 1790 was written, the duration of time somebody could claim a copyright was a scant 14 years, with the possibility of another 14 if the owner was still alive. In 1831 this was extended to 28 years, with a 14 year renewal. It was extended again in 1909 for two 28 year terms. (It was under these terms that “Good Morning To All” fell into public domain.)
     This law also meant that the copyright to Mickey Mouse, or, more specifically, 1928’s “Steamboat Willy” was scheduled to expire in 1984.
     You may have noticed that “Steamboat Willy” is not, in fact, in the public domain. In 1976, Congress passed the Copyright Act of 1976, which again changed the terms of copyright to include the entire life of the author plus 50 years. The law also retroactively extended the copyright for corporate-owned works after 1922 from 56 years to 75 years, delaying “Steamboat Willy’s” entry into the public domain until 2003.
     Again, you may have noticed that “Steamboat Willy” is still not in the public domain.
     That’s because Congress again took action in 1998 with the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, otherwise known as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act. This extension lengthened the terms of copyright to the life of the author plus 70 years and again extended the copyright for corporate works another two decades.
     This means that the copyright to “Steamboat Willy” is now projected to expire in 2023, which means, if history holds true, we’ll see another corporate led push to extend the terms of copyright within the next few years.
     Of course, copyright or not, there’s little chance of Mickey Mouse actually falling into the public domain. Disney’s trademark protections on the character, which is an entirely different set of law, will keep Mickey as the exclusive face of the Disney empire until the heat death of the universe.
     At best, the expired copyright for “Steamboat Willie” will merely allow the legal reproduction of the historical cartoon.
     Personally, I’m of mixed feelings about the philosophy behind the never ending extensions of copyright. There are people who believe that it’s well past time for popular characters like Superman and Mickey Mouse to enter into the public domain. That the extension of copyrights have done nothing to benefit the public good and instead amounts to corporate welfare.
     One might argue that allowing copyrights to expire would promote innovation, encouraging the creation of new intellectual properties rather than relying on the long established ones.
     On the other hand, it may have the opposite effect. If anybody could make a living writing Superman stories, what incentive would they have to create characters of their own?
     I’m not sure having a perpetual steward of the “official” version of a character is such a bad thing. If not for the 1976 legislation, many of Marvel Comics’ most recognizable characters would enter the public domain by 2020. Granted, I may greatly disagree with the things Marvel has done with Spider-Man in the last decade, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I think the character would be better off in the hands of the public.
     And really, from a storytelling standpoint it’s not like there’s much actually stopping people from using these characters. Right now, you could read a 26 chapter continuation of Walt Disney’s “Zorro” television series on Fanfiction.net and then go to YouTube and watch a seven-minute animated short film about a TIE fighter pilot in the Star Wars universe. The legality of such works is in a bit of a grey area, but for the most part copyright owners turn a blind eye so long as money isn’t changing hands.
     On the other hand, there’s little doubt that copyright law has a limiting effect on access to creative works. A study on the books available on Amazon.com revealed that there is a larger selection of new editions written in the 1880s than the 1980s. Not surprisingly, the availability of older books on Amazon gradually rises for works written from 1800 to 1910, only to drastically plummet with works written after 1920. Because the 1976 Copyright Act protects anything published after 1922, publishers need to research to see if there is a copyright owner of a title before republishing it, which is often too much work for too little return.
     This means that while “The War Of The Worlds” has been continually reprinted and adapted over the years, novels from just 30 years later are considered too troublesome to bother with.
     As a result, an entire generation’s worth of creative fiction, much of it not benefiting anybody today, risks fading away from the public consciousness.
     On the bright side, in just a few short years that red tape may start to break away. Without another extension to the copyright terms, works created in 1923 will fall into the public domain in 2018. Perhaps the 2020s will see a resurgence of literature from the 1920s.
     Again, if the House of Mouse allows it to happen and doesn’t throw enough money at Congress to just let them keep copyrights forever.
     You might think that I’ve said all I have to say about copyright law at this point, but you’d be wrong. So come back again next week for part-three of this two-part series to hear about YouTube, fair use and why The Pokemon Company just sued a Pokemon fan for throwing a party.

 
     Travis Fischer is a news writer for Mid-America Publishing and this column can be freely reprinted in the year 2110.

Hampton Chronicle

9 Second Street NW
Hampton, IA 50441
Phone: 641-456-2585
Fax: 1-800-340-0805
Email: news@midamericapub.com

Mid-America Publishing

This newspaper is part of the Mid-America Publishing Family. Please visit www.midampublishing.com for more information.