Digital Comic Museum
General Category => Comic Related Discussion => Topic started by: OtherEric on December 10, 2018, 10:16:26 PM
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As most of us are aware, the US extended copyright terms 20 years ago, so almost nothing has entered the public domain in decades. The extension is nearing its end, and for the first time in a long while a lot of new items will enter the Public Domain on January 1st, 2019.
I'm just trying to start a discussion thread on this, I don't think there's that much immediately relevant to our interests that will pop up this year. (January 1, 2034, is going to be amazing, though!) I want to remind people to be careful and double check before they upload anything new based on the assumption that it's now valid. I'm also looking for people's thoughts on what may become available in the next few years, before the obvious Work For Hire stuff for the big companies starts popping loose in the 2030's.
The first big thing that occurs to me would be Tarzan and the rest of Edgar Rice Burroughs' work. The 1923 and earlier stories are already PD, but he died in 1950, so the rest of his stuff (barring a few odd posthumous publications, possibly) should become available January 1, 2021... just over two years from now.
Any thoughts?
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Can You explain about January 1 st new items in the public domain, I have the perspective of a seller and you seem to know alot, where should I see these new items exactly come 2019?
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I saw a post on this very subject somewhere like The Vulture or something. I wish I could recall where. They mention some fun item but nothing that would be for here. More music and literature like you were mentioning Eric. If I find the blog post again I'll share it here.
ANYTHING going into the public domain is a welcome change!
-Yoc
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It looks like I may be wrong about the life +70 in the US for published works; or at the very least I'm confused. So don't trust anything I say.
Here's an article to get started with:
https://law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2019/
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The YouTube channel Top Tenz did a video on this back in September. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m96abQSkEa0
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I think I've figured it out, in part. For several decades yet, the 95 years rule will apply. It's only for items first published after a certain point that the life +70 rule kicks in, and that won't start happening for quite a while.
Which means, starting in about 5 years, we'll get a lot of the pop culture stuff we love around here, starting with the earliest Mickey Mouse shorts, followed by a lot of the pulp heroes a few years later.
We're actually getting another OZ book into the public domain on January 1st; The Cowardly Lion of Oz. Which, sadly, has my vote as one of the two worst Ruth Plumly Thompson ever did. I'm looking forward to seeing her comic book work in a few years, though... She was the editor and did lots of text stories for Ace Comics and King Comics.